A man was praying eagerly: “Oh Lord, I believe in you. Nothing is impossible with you. To you, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. Lord, I have something to ask you for. Can you just tell me the winning lottery numbers for this week!” And God’s voice boomed from above, “Okay. No problem, My son. I’ll do it tomorrow.” Tomorrow, as in one day, might be a thousand years to God.
God’s concept of time (Kairos) is significantly different from ours (Chronos). This is where many believers struggle with confusion, frustration, setbacks, or even doubts, leading them to ask, “Does God really care about me? Is God even real?” We want it now, but God gives it later, and sometimes much later, like a couple of decades later. And at other times, God gives something totally different. Or even… God never gives it.
Many Christians tend to view prayer like operating a vending machine. What would you normally do to get something from a vending machine? Well, the first thing you will do before you actually insert coins is to make a choice. You’ve got to decide which item you want to have. Then, as you put your coins in the machine, you know exactly what will pop out. If something else pops out or even nothing pops out, you instantly know that the machine is out of order. I think many Christians view prayer like that. When they pray for something, they expect that God will answer their prayers in the way a vending machine should work.
In a Christian survey done in many churches in the US years ago, they found that ‘unanswered prayer’ was one of the main barriers for many churchgoers. Because of their unanswered prayers, many believers would stay away from growing in faith. Prayer is more than an emergency magical lamp rubbed in a crisis. The truth is, many people give up on prayer because they haven’t received what they prayed for.
This leads us to ask some questions such as: “How do you pray?” or “Why pray at all?” And above all, “What do you pray about?” We are not alone. Those disciples of Jesus had that question, too. In today’s gospel story, Jesus was praying in a certain place, when one of his disciples came up to say, “Lord, teach us how to pray.” And Jesus said, “When you pray, say, “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”
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