Pastor's Corner 9/29/11

Christians are produced by faith

Faith produces many things.

One of those things is prayer.

Not so much the “God help me” prayers, which can be reactionary, but the “Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret” prayers.

I loved this book when I was about 12 years old.

Judy Blume wrote a book about a girl whose mother was raised Christian, whose father was raised Jewish, and who herself was raised nothing.

Even so, she talked to God.

Not just requests or thanks but actually talked to God about what was going on in her life.

Blume doesn’t have God talking back to her; this is the story of a young girl on the edge of puberty trying to deal with her life circumstances.

She wasn’t sure if God existed or not, or that if God did, he would listen to her, but for some reason she kept on praying.

To me that is what faith is. Not knowing for certain, yet still believing, despite the religious conflicts within her family. God is the only one who always listens to her, who always understands her dilemmas, who is always there.Prayer is many things. It is what we do on our knees beside our beds as children at bedtime. It is what we do before a test for which we didn’t study or before the meeting for which we are not prepared. It is what we do when we discover that we are going to be parents. It is what we do when we or someone we love is sick or hurt. It is what we do when the world has turned upside down. It is what we do when things turn out the way we wanted them to.

But it needs to be more. We need to pray when we get up in the morning just because. We need to pray when there is no crisis looming in school or at work. We need to pray for all the children who are coming into this world whether we have them ourselves or not. We need to pray when we and everyone in our lives is healthy. We need to pray when the world is right side up. We need to pray when things don’t turn out the way we want them to.

In other words, we need to always be praying. Everything we do needs to be a prayer, an offering to God. That doesn’t mean being on our knees all the time or even talking to God all the time. It means being open to God’s word and will at all times. It means setting some time aside not just to pray to God, but to give God a chance to talk to us. Be still and know that I am God is not a command to pray but a command to shut up and listen!

Is your life a prayer to God? Would others looking at your life believe that you believe in God? There is a saying “your actions speak so loudly, I can’t hear what you are saying.” We have live according to what we say we believe. That doesn’t mean we boast of our “holiness” but the parable about not praying loudly in public is one meant for a time and place where praying was admired and demanded of all (Luke 18:9-14). That is not our time.

We should not hide the fact we pray. We should offer to pray with others. We should offer to God what is God’s. We should not be ashamed of the Gospel. God loves each one of us. God wants to talk to us. God wants to listen to us. This was the wonderful message of Jesus. That God wants to have a personal relationship with us. All of us.

Christians are produced by faith. We are products of the faith and prayers of others, whoever taught us about God and Christ, parents, teachers, pastors, friends and so on. Pass it on. The coming generations are the products of our faith and prayers... or lack thereof.

Rev. Jeannette Solimine