Our Friend in Prayer

Prayer and Action-Luke 11:13

 

     I read of a lady who went on a retreat .  They were gathered and the retreat leader asked,” What is your image of God?”  Some said, “ Saviour”. Others said “ Defender” or “ Ruler” but she said, “ Friend”.  Certainly a good answer!  I wonder how many of us would say that.  What is a friend?  “Friends Are Kind and Act As a Positive Influence in Your Life
It should go without saying that real friends make you feel good, as opposed to bring you down. People who are genuinely your friend put your relationship above being right or trying to feel superior. If someone constantly puts you down, he or she is not a real friend.” ( about.comfriendship) 

 

    This week a good friend of mine died in California.  I had known him since I was stationed in Ca in 1989.  He was the asst pastor at the church we attended when we could as I was also doing services on post.  Then he eventually succeeded the Rector or pastor.   He would drop everything to talk if I called or dropped by.  He always had the interest and time in what I was struggling with.  He was a true friend.  He knew me better than I knew myself really.  For that friendship over 24 years I am grateful.  When I traveled to California to visit family, I always called and had a meal with him to catch up.  Unfortunately this last FEB when I was there he could only talk on the phone.  I was calling him last week and instead his wife told me hospice had come and he was in the house unconscious.  I told her , “ I already know what he would have told me.”  He used to tell me to pray . I told him I had done that.  Then he would say, “ why are you still confused then and so stubborn?”

 

   We do not have many like that in our lives.  In today’s Gospel, we read of a man who went to the house of a friend while on a trip and asked for food.  He knocked on the door at midnight.  This was not a good time to knock on someone’s door in that area of the world and in that time.  But obviously the man had planned it as he knew traveling after dark, he could stop at his friend’s house and get what he needed.  How many of us would open the door at midnight?  Not me probably. But if it was someone that was a friend, I would. 

 

   In prayer , God is our Friend.  He knows us.  He lets us knock on that door and He opens.  We are always seeking the right answers in our lives and how to do certain things.  We know God has the answers but sometimes we don’t feel that we can knock on the door of God’s house so to speak.  We wait, we stew ( not the stuff you eat) , we fret, we drink a lot of coffee and spin around like one of those little tops that eventually fall.  Then we call on God. 

 

    I call this sermon, “ Prayer and action “ because that is what prayer is.  It is God hearing and God acting as we act we when ask.  Note the action.  The friend hears.  The friend answers.  He acts.  When we pray, we too should act.  Prayer is meditation.  It is a lot of things as I thought about it.  You could help me with such a list.  It is being quiet as Mary was at the feet of Jesus and listening.  It is taking a walk in the woods without knowing what direction you are going in and you are so wrapped up in the scenery you get lost in prayer.  (just find your way back somehow though!)  It is taking care of a stray animal or listening to a friend in pain.  These are all prayerful actions. It is action when we get the answer to do something to help someone in need that we know about.  And it does not have to be someone in our family or in our church.

 

“A Time to Talk

By

Robert Frost

When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don't stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven't hoed,
And shout from where I am, 'What is it?'
No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit.”

Source: A Time to Talk by Robert Frost, Famous Friendship Poems http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/famous/poem/a-time-to-talk#ixzz2aAAhlhER
www.FamilyFriendPoems.com

 

Such a prayerful friend is God.  When we need direction He will always hear us.  He will always answer the knocking door.  It opens.  It says, “ Come in.”  “ I want to listen to what is troubling you and what you need----because I love you.”  So what is keeping us from prayer today?