Thoughts on Prayer

Most people who say their prayers "in the privacy of their chamber" do so in a very low voice, almost a whisper, perhaps to avoid bothering others, maybe because the dominant culture dictates that religion is a very personal thing, not to be aired openly in public, or that spirituality is best found in silence and reclusion.

Be this as it may, a problem arises when this practice is carried over to prayer meetings, and people mumble their prayers inaudibly into their shirt necks, almost as if they were ashamed to share something so intimate with others.

If we are happy to commune with God, let us share that joy with others, and raise up our prayers in a strong voice that will echo off the walls, fill the corridors and shake the foundations! Let us "make a gladsome noise unto the Lord"!

The dear friends of Peru even have the custom of "declaiming" their prayers as if they were reading poetry to a large audience. How inspiring! How uplifting!

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I once heard that the more specific one's prayers are, the more effective.
But I never really understood the wisdom of these words until I experienced it personally. We had just moved to a rather remote pioneering post in a small town in the Amazon region, and were suffering from culture shock, lack of running water, a damp house, snakes in the yard, frogs in the bath, and enormous flying cockroaches all around. In these conditions, I had to leave my wife with our two small children for a couple of weeks, to do a job in the capital city.

As I rode out on the bus praying for them, the advice about making one's prayers specific came to mind. So I said, "Oh God, give my wife consolation, and comfort her heart. But not just the kind of comfort that comes from the abstract understanding that You are with her always. I mean real, tangible comfort, as if I were there physically to help her." I later learned that at the same time I was pronouncing those words, her loving mother was knocking on the door of our new home to pay a surprise visit that lasted until I returned! How tangible is that?!

So friends, if you want to ask for something, have the courage to ask for exactly what you want. But be careful what you ask for: you just might get more than you expect, like the lady who asked for patience and was given quintuplets. To give you a personal example, I was once doing a very difficult and important translation, and prayed for help to do as perfect a job as possible. Well, I must have been assigned the most persnickety translator in the entire "Heavenly Concourse", because it took me all morning to get through the first page! The work was brilliant, but I had a deadline to meet. So I prayed again, asking for someone a little less fussy and more efficient, and thus was able to get the job done well and on time.