I'm sure I never asked for that

I had a nice surprise the other day.  It wasn't a great parking space.  It wasn't a chocolate cake.  I'm not pregnant again (at least one of you was thinking that...)

I was due to have a tutorial next week but The Curate is going to be away and that presents all sorts of practical problems, not to mention that I will be even more tired than I am normally.  On top of that I was a bit stressed about writing my presentation for it when I've only just stopped chasing my tail after submitting my last essay.  This week my tutor announced that he was unable to attend so we rearranged it for the following week.  The pressure is off in so many ways.  I can't even begin to tell you how relieved I am.

My first instinct was to pray "thank you Lord for answering my prayers" but then I realised that I hadn't prayed about it.  Even though I was feeling really stressed I had forgotten to pray about it.  Or had I?

Pete Greig (the founder of 24-7 Prayer) has this theory that everyone prays.  You know when you are desperate and in your head you start saying "oh please, please don't let x, y, and z happen", well that is a prayer that you are just flinging out there, even if you aren't directing it at God.

‘Even non-Christians pray. The difference when Christians do it is that they are climbing into the lap of their heavenly Father.” Pete Greig, Red Moon Rising

I started to wonder if I had prayed about my tutorial.  I certainly had wished that I could have the tutorial the following week.  And as a Christian I do direct my wishes towards God because I believe that He is the only one with power to answer my prayers.

On this occasion I had a 'yes' from God.  I probably would have been a lot less stressed about the whole situation if I had purposefully sat down and prayed about it.  At least then I would have known that I had given the whole thing to God and acknowledged that He was in control anyway.  I always feel more peaceful about situations that feel overwhelming when I have prayed about them.  Well, hindsight is a wonderful thing.  But, I was still left wondering 'what constitutes prayer'?



We used to sing this song at toddler church that went "prayer is like a telephone for us to talk to Jesus" (for the record, it is an incredibly annoying song and I have no plans to introduce it to toddler group any time soon).  But prayer is more than just a conversation with God, it's an act of faith.  When we pray, we are trusting that God is listening and will respond.  I know that lots of my atheist friends believe that answered prayer is just a coincidence and doesn't involve God.  J. John has a great way of looking at that issue.  Watch this funny clip to find out what cute little kittens have to do with prayer and coincidences.

I don't know about you, but I'm happy to have the coincidences in my life.  The more I pray, the more coincidences there are.

Back to my question 'what constitutes prayer'? Well, there is obviously the closed eyes, hands clasped, talking directly to God type of prayer.  On this occasion, I hadn't done that.  But there is also contemplative prayer and meditative prayer, for example.  Well, I definitely have been engaging in meditative prayer.  I'm not especially loving my meditation sessions because I'm not pouring everything out to God or even saying thank you to Him.  But maybe my choice to use 'Jesus' as an 'anchor word' is enough.  Just acknowledging that Jesus is in control is all that I need to do.  Even if I'm not speaking out the issues that are on my heart, that doesn't mean God doesn't know about them.

I'm not sure that I have fully worked out what counts as praying yet.  And if I'm honest, I'm not a fan of being told 'no' (AKA "I have something better in mind") because I don't understand God's plan.  What I do know is that God is listening, He does care and He does answer prayers because He loves us.