Prayer is probably the most talked about but least practiced activity in the church today.  While most of us acknowledge the importance of prayer, we all too often reserve it for those moments of dire emergency leaving it to be the most underutilized part of our spiritual lives.

For many of us, the biggest frustration with prayer is that it seems as if many of them go unanswered.  In his book Bright Intervals, Robert A. Beringer states that we will continue to hear “No” more often than not until we get ourselves off center stage.  The only way we will do this is to understand that prayer is about doing God’s will, not our own.  (p. 24)

If prayer is to become an enduring part of our spiritual lives, we must learn to place our trust in God, not in our own perceptions and desires.  The Catechism of the United Church of Canada says this about prayer:  Prayer is laying our lives open to God . . . casting ourselves on the mercy of God . . . telling God the desires of our hearts. . . and accepting God’s way in our lives.