Word=Faith=Prayer

A Praying Life.  What does prayer look like?  Each religion has some form of "prayer" ranging from set times each day to face Mecca and chant, meditation with an empty mind seeking a higher chakra, or just talking out loud to the "universe" in hopes that a Master/Creator/Deity in some form will hear.

In Christianity, one prays in faith - expecting that One God, who is above all and in all and loves all, hears and acts.  I have prayed before.  Faithfully, even, at least for a short time.  But has He heard?  Do I believe that He hears - and acts - whether or not I have evidence of His actions?  I suppose if I did, I would pray.

I have been a Christian since I was very young.  I still remember laying down for a nap - my childhood church's Easter play fresh on my mind.  "Mommy, why did they kill Jesus?"  And somehow it clicked.  He had to die, so I could live.  I live, because He died.  Of course I would ask Him into my heart, to be my King, to trust and follow Him all my life.  It just made sense.  Oh to be young.  Oh to trust without seeing.  Oh to loose cynicism and skepticism and simply trust.

Some trust into adulthood.  Some go through hell on earth, losing babies, struggling with a husband who denies Christ, and still trust.  And I am the one who clings to all I know.  He must be good, because I believed it once.  He must listen and care, because he has cared for me.

If I am to believe (which I claim to do) that He will not give a stone when I ask for bread, what am I to do when I ask for a fish and hold in my hand a serpent?  What then, God?

What keeps me from praying consistently and confidently?  I do not trust God.  Either He is all powerful and not loving, or He is all loving and not powerful.  Because if He were all powerful and all loving, wouldn't life be much better?  (Note: I am grateful for the life I have.)