Tuesday, February 06, 2007

The Importance of Prayer

I've been thinking of the importance of prayer lately. Obviously prayer is very important, but why is it?

Let's say there's a guy stuck alone on a boat, and he is not trained in how to operate this boat. After a while, he can begin to understand how to make it function, mainly by trial and error. This method of learning will take years, and will cause much hardship, as the man will not always guess right on the first try. Eventually, though, he's bound to get a basic understandin of how to operate the boat. However, there are always surprises, such as storms, mechanical malfunctions, and the like. When these sort of things happen, things that the man has not run into before, he basically just has to guess what would be the best thing to do. Things could potentially go very wrong.

Now, let's say the engineer of the boat is in communication with the man on the boat. Obviously there are huge advantages here. First off, the man on the boat has someone to talk him through everything. He doesn't have to spend years making mistakes with the day to day operations of the boat. Also, when something goes wrong, the engineer will know best what to do. And, hopefully, if they talk on a regular basis, the man on the boat will know what to do in advance if some mechanical failure occurs. He will begin to have some of the overall knowledge that the engineer has.

Under this sort of situation, the man in the boat, and the engineer who created it will become good friends. The man will be much happier being in good contact with the engineer, and doing what he says to do.

Now, sometimes, the engineer will tell the man to do something that is difficult. It may require a lot of work. And the man will tell the engineer that he doesn't want to do it. The man will quit talking to the engineer, because every time they talk, the engineer urges him to complete this difficult task that the man in the boat is avoiding. The engineer of course knows what's best for the man in the boat, and the man will suffer as a result of his own stubborness.

Hopefully, before it's too late, the man will see how silly he's being. Perhaps things on the boat will begin to look bad, and he'll realize that the engineer was right. He'll go to the radio, and call up the engineer. The engineer will be overjoyed that he's back in communication with him, and tell him what he needs to do. The man will do it, and they will be friends once again.

If God is the engineer, and we are people drifting across the sea of life, the smart thing to do is to stay in constant communication with Him. Cutting off communication with Him borders on insanity; only He knows what storms or trials are just around he corner. Only He knows what's best for us. We could not ask for a better friend, our Lord and our Savior.


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