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The Process of Praying
(as written by an apprentice)
__________


A sign of love and compassion regarding why your search for help from God seems to take far more than we thought we were told God helps us with prayer. The longer we wait the more we lead to giving up. So often we are ready to give up that we are given an amazing reminder that good moves in mysterious ways and that it is our need to continue to learn how to continue exercising the cake in prayer; in searching out soul; and observing our heart and our human environment for signs we are seeking that indicate that God loves us and that our lives move in God's ways, not ours.

The time it took for me to "get" the response I needed at this juncture of my life was expected to be short/quick. In my effort to say a prayer in hopes that the problem would be rectified immediately dissipated. Despite learning how much this issue happens to many people in my life, and countless more to people I don't know or hear about, I learned that in addition to experiencing the pain, seeking an outlet to manage and solve the issue and restore my faith in people, it simply took one more step and that was for me to give it time. So often we need or want something that we are urgently waiting gratification for our request. We want or need something immediately. In this case, my error in judgement was that I forgot an important dimension of wisdom, and that was that in life we must wait for what we are seeking; we must delay our gratification and that it is not only the better choice for our personal character, it is clearly part of our relationship with God. In summary, prayer to God is not comparable to a light switch that provides us immediate response to what we expect. Prayer is a journey for what we are seeking, not a destination.

"Playing Hard to Get"
(a selection from the song
written and recorded by Rich Mullins)

And I know You bore our sorrows
And I know You feel our pain
And I know it would not hurt any less
Even if it could be explained

And I know that I am only lashing out
At the One who loves me most
And after I figured this, somehow
All I really need to know

Is if You who live in eternity
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in time
We can't see what's ahead
And we can not get free of what we've left behind

I'm reeling from these voices that keep screaming in my ears
All the words of shame and doubt, blame and regret
I can't see how You're leading me unless You've led me here
Where I'm lost enough to let myself be led
And so You've been here all along I guess
It's just Your ways and You are just plain hard to get