June 4, 2005

1. J. T. Akin

The power of prayer

When one thinks of prayer they don't often think of praying with force or faith. Faith is the focus of the thoughts on your hopes. Hope is an unusual word in the Bible and one few really give much heed to. It holds within it the very essence of wishes. Wishes are the cry of the heart for answers for God. Why do I say wishes? Lets look at the most famous scripture of all. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Now if I were a person longing for intimacy with God I would be told with Paul that now abideth faith , hope and love. Faith is simply a process of moving forward in trust with God. The greater your trust the greater your understanding of spiritual matters. Most assume that hope has little to do with faith. This is a lie. Saying "I hope so" has lead to a spiritual doubting which is like saying now abides faith and love while casting hope out of the picture.

Faith is the essential ingredient for trusting God but hope is the foundation of it. Hope or hoplessness are two ways of seeing the same coin. A coin which is often tossed at random into our thoughts. We think "I hope it works out for me to get a better job" but we toss it around with "I doubt if I'll get that job..."

By the end of the toss you literally have no hope left and your faith is crushed as well and love goes out the window. I think hope is the literal dreams of faith which gives us wings and motivation to go forward. But how do you pray when you have no hope? By first understanding that our natural man lives on the dark side of the toss. We live in fear and walk in fear and when our earthly hope is broken it leads directly to despair. I guess the best way to understand this is to think of hope as a prayer to God for good things to happen in your life. You are a person who needs help just as I am. We can't obligate God into our system of wishes but must include him in our desires in all things . For example lets assume we wanted a raise at work. Most people just write a letter, complain to their co-workers, or just keep silent and stew inwardly. But there really are other methods for making these things a reality. First is the patience method. Patience says "I can wait as long as it takes". Eventually this pays off with increases though sometimes it can lead to you being laid off or losing your job for various reasons.

This is perhaps one reason why I think if you want a raise you have to raise your eyes above the earthly measures you are looking at. Everything in this realm is temporal or temporary. It holds no lasting value. Everything is temporal and has little value. Even the greater treasures are broken and shattered.

There is however another side to the coin which I have come to understand. A side that is tricky to see. It is "How do you make the coin that holds hope and hopelessness?" Do you toss the coin away? Do you throw it into a dark corner?

I don't really know how to answer this question in fullness. I can't really see a use for a coin that has two smiling faces or two unhappy tales. I can however declare there is a compromise system called the realms of hope. To put it into perspective we give so little thought to hope that it becomes a byword of doubt. Thats because we live in a world where hope is hard to come by. People are sad, angry, sour, mad, and just plain ornery to be around. Prayer does change things but slowly. We don't see immediate changes in five minutes though that can happen. We instead see changes that help us overcome our world view. God up above looks and thinks, "How can I help men and women to understand that prayer changes things?"

By helping them to see that we are brought low by prayer so that God might raise us up in desires based on hopes. Hope is a mysterious understanding based on two major things. The prospect of change and the hope for change. We look at change as the most horrible of conditions. Do I really love God enough to change? How do I get there? I guess the best hope of all is hope itself based on a positive world view. World view is the desire that changes us into something we never imagined.

For me prayer has literally transformed my thinking so I went from being totally inward seeking to outward seeking. I got caught up into visions that grew bigger and larger and huger until I literally was taken into places I didn't recognize. How could I? Do we think of Fairy Tales as coming true anymore? Or have we become so fact minded that truth goes out the door. I love truth and love the facts but realize these are part of the mechanical systems of our world. Scientists need help to understand the complexity of the world around them. They base understanding on instruments they create.

God created in us a system I can call almost magic. It is the power of hope. Hope is a fantastical realm of imagination where our fondest wishes come true. Hope fulfilled becomes the power of faith. Hope has no limits in the sense that prayer has no limits. It takes us to new understandings of things around us. They are Gods way of mechanizing us into His spiritual system. We have to have a hope before it can be fulfilled. Once this is accomplished we then move on to a perfection of love.

In conclusion I realize some of this may sound difficult to understand. Just remember that Hope is real just as your desires for change are real. Refuse to think small. Reach for the stars by remembering God has a plan for your life. Have a hope and say a prayer today.