Wishing is Not Praying

There is a tendency today to consider “wishing” and “praying” to be the same thing. The often used phrase “our thoughts and prayers are with you” is a good example, I think, of this confusion. We say this to people when we feel bad for them, but very often it ends up being just an empty saying. We neither think nor pray for the situation afterwards.

Now, if you are the kind of person that says this and then goes and prays, then this clearly doesn’t apply to you! But I believe that many people do not, in fact, go away and pray. In these cases, there is a tendency for this phrase to become an empty filler—and when this happens, then “thoughts” very easily gets confused with “prayers.” And before you know it, we believe that anytime we “think” about a situation we are somehow sending positive energy into the universe, which is magically doing something good.

But that is just wishing. And wishing is a game we teach to our children when we see shooting stars or throw coins into fountains. It is the stuff of Disney movies and fairytales and princesses kissing frogs. It has no power to change the real world. Prayer on the other hand, changes things.

The problem with wishing is that it is based in you and it is sent out directionless into the universe. It is like writing a letter addressed to no one and mailed without proper postage.

When you pray to our Heavenly Father, on the other hand, you are having a conversation with the most powerful person in the universe. Your empty wish becomes a request, submitted to someone who sees all and knows all and is infinitely good. And the great thing about praying to God is that not only can He do anything, but also when we give our request to Him, we can trust that we have been heard.

When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, He gave them a model—we call it The Lord’s Prayer. It starts out with “Our Father” and then continues to cover all the bases. The prayer Jesus taught the disciples was meant as a model for our prayers, not just a prayer for us to repeat. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer in this way, we are engaging in the work of prayer instead of just throwing out “hail Mary” passes to the universe.

So the next time you are tempted to throw out a wish when confronting a difficult situation -- take a few extra moments and actually pray.

This weekend the pastors in Kings County would love the opportunity to help you connect with the object of our prayers — our Father in Heaven. Why don’t you gather your family and do something together that could change everything?

A Withered Hand

It is said that one day Jesus was teaching at the temple and there in the crowd was a man whose hand was paralyzed. Now, we don’t know exactly what was wrong, but it is pretty clear this hand was not particularly useful. One translation says it was withered, another says shriveled and still another says deformed. It’s safe to say, the dude’s hand was messed up.  

Right in the middle of teaching, Jesus stops and tells the man to stand up in front of everyone.

So imagine, you are the man. You’re hand is jacked up and it’s been that way for a while. You’ve gotten pretty good at compensating and people who meet you for the first time often don’t notice your limitation. You’re an expert at being invisible. You came to hear Jesus teach, and with a slight hope that the amazing stories you’ve been hearing about Jesus healing people might be true and that He might heal you.

And all of a sudden, Jesus stops and turns and looks at you and tells you to stand up. At first, you think He must be talking to someone else, and then that sick feeling settles in the pit of your stomach and you know He’s talking to you.

As you stand up, you immediately begin to imagine the worst - Jesus is going to use your disability as an example of what happens when someone lives a sinful life or worse, He is going to mock you. But then, instead of either of those things, Jesus tells you to stretch out your hand.

Let’s just skip ahead in the story for a moment so you can hear how it ends. Jesus tells the man to stretch out his hand, and the man obeys and as he reaches out, his hand is instantly healed. That’s pretty amazing stuff and another example of the amazing power of Jesus.

But let’s step back to that moment just before the man stretched out his hand. The moment right after Jesus uttered the words “stretch out.” Put yourself back in the man’s shoes again.

“Stretch out your hand?!” Who’s He kidding? I’ve tried that a million times. I’ve prayed. I’ve asked God to heal it. I’ve strengthened the muscles around it in the hopes that would help. I’ve visited doctor after doctor. Tried every medicine and pill and herbal supplement known to man, and still nothing -- nada -- zippo. That hand is dead. I gave up on it long ago.

And yet, something stirs within you. What if Jesus really does have the power to change my situation — to heal my hand? What if today is the day where it all changes? Why not do what He says? What do I have to lose?

And the rest is history.

So let me ask you a question. Do you have a withered hand? Maybe it’s not a physical disability, but rather a place that is severely broken in your life. That area where you have given up hope that it could ever be repaired. That place you’ve tried to fix and prayed about and worked on and nothing seems to help.

Good news. Jesus is in the business of repairing withered hands. He’s looking for people who are willing to stand up and acknowledge that they are broken. People who are willing to stretch out and trust that He can fix what is broken. These are the kind of people he heals!