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Vieraskieliset / In-english

Blog: Why should we pray?

Vieraskieliset / In-english
11.5.2021 7.05

Juttua muokattu:

10.5. 09:14
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"For he will com­mand his an­gels con­cer­ning you to gu­ard you in all yo­ur ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike yo­ur foot against a stone." (Ps. 91:11–12).

"Re­mem­ber to pray and go to ser­vi­ces." My grand­mot­her Val­ma of­ten spoke these words when one of us was le­a­ving. The words have re­mai­ned per­ma­nent­ly in my me­mo­ry and still come in­to my mind now and then.

Pe­op­le have been pra­ying at all ti­mes, and for many of them pra­yer is an es­sen­ti­al part of life. In the cour­se of his­to­ry, un­der va­ri­ous thre­ats, such as wars, pan­de­mics, and emer­gen­cies, pe­op­le in our count­ry have been pra­ying for God’s help and pro­tec­ti­on. They have known God’s pro­tec­ti­on as a so­lid sour­ce of se­cu­ri­ty and trust.

The first pra­yer for many pe­op­le is the eve­ning pra­yer they le­arnt to say at bed­ti­me as child­ren. God en­cou­ra­ges pe­op­le to pray in the midst of their wor­ries and dif­fi­cul­ties and to rely on His word.

I re­cent­ly had a dis­cus­si­on with a friend that po­wer­ful­ly re­min­ded me of pra­ying. That friend’s fa­mi­ly had ex­pe­rien­ced il­l­ness, wor­ries, and fa­ti­gue. But un­der such an­xie­ties she had al­so ex­pe­rien­ced the won­der­ful care of the He­a­ven­ly Fat­her, for which she was gra­te­ful.

In pra­yer we can ap­p­ro­ach God with our own needs using the words of a fa­mi­li­ar pra­yer or by free­ly tal­king to God. We can pray alo­ne, to­get­her with so­me­o­ne, or joint­ly with the cong­re­ga­ti­on at church or at ser­vi­ces.

A pra­yer on be­half of so­me­o­ne el­se is cal­led an in­ter­ces­so­ry pra­yer. We of­ten hear such pra­yers at Sum­mer Ser­vi­ces. When, at ti­mes of wor­ries and hards­hips, so­me­o­ne says, ”I will re­mem­ber you in pra­yer”, those words seem re­al­ly com­for­ting, es­pe­ci­al­ly if we our­sel­ves find it overw­hel­ming­ly hard to pray.

"Dear He­a­ven­ly Fat­her, keep me and my dear ones be­lie­ving and gui­de those who have stra­yed back on to the road of life.” Many pe­op­le say this he­art­felt pra­yer when a friend or a dear one has en­coun­te­red dif­fi­cul­ties in life. We want to pray that God would help those in dif­fi­cul­ties and would pro­tect them in per­so­nal faith when they ex­pe­rien­ce the pull of the world and be­co­me we­a­ry in faith.

It is hu­man to feel at dif­fi­cult ti­mes that there is no way to get help. We may al­so feel that God does not even hear our pra­yers. Un­der a bur­den of wor­ries we may grow we­a­ry both phy­si­cal­ly and spi­ri­tu­al­ly and lose sight of the pros­pects ahe­ad of us. At such ti­mes, ho­we­ver, we may sud­den­ly find our­sel­ves car­ried by in­ter­ces­so­ry pra­yers and sur­roun­ded by God’s bles­sings. I was re­cent­ly told this by a fa­mi­ly who had lost a fa­mi­ly mem­ber.

In the un­cer­tain ti­mes that we are li­ving, many pe­op­le want to rely on God and to pray for His pro­tec­ti­on. Even pe­op­le who do not usu­al­ly pray may have joi­ned their hands in pra­yer, as­king for God’ help. The dif­fi­cul­ties cau­sed by the pan­de­mic have been al­lo­wed by God to hap­pen, just as He al­lows things to hap­pen in each per­son’s life.

Like child­ren, we can trust in God’s care and pro­tec­ti­on and be­lie­ve that even the we­a­kest tra­ve­lers are being car­ried by many in­ter­ces­so­ry pra­yers. The He­a­ven­ly Fat­her has pro­mi­sed to hear our pra­yers and to help in good time. We would do well to share the bur­dens of our neigh­bors with prob­lems: ”Car­ry each ot­her’s bur­dens, and in this way you will ful­fill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:2).

Text: Vau­la Es­ke­li

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen