The Miracle of not Praying
As you may have guessed by now, if you have been reading my posts, I am a faithful Christian and a devout Roman Catholic. As such I pray a lot. And I pray in all of the forms of prayer. Briefly there are five forms of prayer.
Blessing and adoration: This is where we tell God how much we love Him. And because God blesses us, we can bless others, including returning that blessing to God.
Petition: Prayers of petition are when we ask for something for ourselves.
Intercession: These are the prayers where we ask for something for someone else.
Thanksgiving: A prayer where we thank God for all he has done.
Praise: This is where we tell God how great he is.
As I was saying, I pray a lot, from the small things, "God please help me find my keys.", to the big things, "Thank you God for this wonderful life you have given me. God regularly answers my prayers. Yeah I know what some of you are thinking "Nut ball!" but at least listen to a couple of stories before you make up your mind. I'll tell a couple of stories of prayers answered and then I will end with two examples of the miracle of not praying.
One of the first times that I can remember God answering my prayer in such a way as it left little doubt it was He that answered was a prayer for my daughter. My daughter has had ear problems, infections, pain and clogging since she was a little girl. We had tubes put in but the infection at that time was so bad the doctor commented to me he had never seen such a bad infection behind the ear drum. Well even after the tubes she had troubles. When she was in middle school she was having a particularly bad time of it. She was in such intense pain she couldn't eat, couldn't sleep. After two days of this she was just weak and miserable. Even codeine pain killers did not seem to help. She might dose a bit but was always tossing and turning and showing pain on her face. As she lay on the couch suffering I tried something. In the Bible they would lay on hands and pray in Jesus name and people would be healed. So I tried it. I laid one hand on my daughters head and I prayed like I had not prayed in vary long time. No bargains or promises just a plea that my daughter's pain would go away and she could sleep. Jesus always said if you believe nothing was impossible. So I prayed "Please ease her pain. Please let her sleep. I know if I believe you will do this." Over and over. Well after about a minute she gave a big sigh and slipped into a deep sleep that lasted many hours. I sat there stunned. God had answered my prayer. Of course I wasn't so stunned as to forget to give a prayer of thanksgiving.
My next story involves a watch. When my son got married, my wife and I, bought him a dress pocket watch. Something nice to go with his tuxedo. It came in a nice wooden box and everything. Well we had bought it about a month in advance and I had placed it, I thought, in my dresser drawer with my grandfather's watch. Well the night before the wedding I go to get the watch and it is not there. Thus starts a three hour detailed search by my wife and I. No watch. Finally I knew only God could help. I prayed, "God please let me find this watch." Then I went back to my search. I moved a newspaper off of an easy chair and there sat the watch in its box. Now that watch did not sit there a month, nor did we miss looking at the chair while searching. No, it was another prayer answered.
My last story of a prayer answered I suppose could all be in my head. But I don't think so. I had worked for an alarm company for 22 years and then they were bought. I was the head of IT, the main fire alarm designer and the fire alarm license holder. I had built all of the systems in the building from the access control system to the telephones to the computer network. I thought the new owners would want me for sure. Well they didn't. So I went looking for work and found my dream job, a programmer for a small software company that supplies software to the alarm industry. Then came the problem. The company that had bought the alarm company did not want me permanently but would pay me thirty thousand dollars to work there for three months and guide things through the transition. But my dream job needed me now, they couldn't wait three months. If I Could not start in two or three weeks they would have to get someone else. What should I do? So I prayed for God to advise me. Everyday for a week I prayed. And then in church on Sunday I heard the answer. It was as if someone had whispered in my ear it was so real. The answer? "It doesn't matter." God was telling me to do what I wanted and He would take care of me. That Monday I turned in my two week notice, said thanks for the offer but no thanks and took my dream job where I still work today.
I have a friend who is a bit neutral toward religion but he accepts me and my faith. Well he had been fighting with a server for two days. It just would not do what he wanted it to. Now my friend is pretty smart. He has a master's degree in network technology and owned his own small internet service company till he sold it. So for him to struggle for two days is not only unheard of but very frustrating to him. So I was walking over toward where he was working, thinking to myself I would let him know I would pray for him and maybe that would boost his morale. When I heard him yell "That's it! I got it!" Now like I said, he is a very smart person made he would have figured it out just then anyway. Or maybe God knew what I was going to pray for before I even said my prayer.
My final story is about my son. He was having some trouble at work. And I had been praying hard for twenty four hours. I'd say a prayer if I woke up in the night to roll over. A quick prayer and then back to sleep. Well I went to my Tuesday night prayer group and explained why I was praying so hard and they promised to pray for my son also when they said their regular daily prayer. We finished our meeting and went our separate ways. When I got home my wife told me she had received a telephone call from our son and things were finally looking up and turning around. And then she said, "You talked about it in your group didn't you?" I said I had. She said "I thought so I could sense something" and then she told me what time my son had called. It was the same time my friends had said they would pray too. Another prayer answered before it was even spoken.
In Matthew chapter 6 verse 8, where Jesus is explaining how to pray to His disciples, He says, "your Father knows what things you need, before you ask Him." I have come to understand this in a dramatic way. Twice now God has answered my prayers in a way obvious to me, even before I said my prayer. So those are my miracles of not praying. God answered me even before I asked.
God Bless you and yours
Blessing and adoration: This is where we tell God how much we love Him. And because God blesses us, we can bless others, including returning that blessing to God.
Petition: Prayers of petition are when we ask for something for ourselves.
Intercession: These are the prayers where we ask for something for someone else.
Thanksgiving: A prayer where we thank God for all he has done.
Praise: This is where we tell God how great he is.
As I was saying, I pray a lot, from the small things, "God please help me find my keys.", to the big things, "Thank you God for this wonderful life you have given me. God regularly answers my prayers. Yeah I know what some of you are thinking "Nut ball!" but at least listen to a couple of stories before you make up your mind. I'll tell a couple of stories of prayers answered and then I will end with two examples of the miracle of not praying.
One of the first times that I can remember God answering my prayer in such a way as it left little doubt it was He that answered was a prayer for my daughter. My daughter has had ear problems, infections, pain and clogging since she was a little girl. We had tubes put in but the infection at that time was so bad the doctor commented to me he had never seen such a bad infection behind the ear drum. Well even after the tubes she had troubles. When she was in middle school she was having a particularly bad time of it. She was in such intense pain she couldn't eat, couldn't sleep. After two days of this she was just weak and miserable. Even codeine pain killers did not seem to help. She might dose a bit but was always tossing and turning and showing pain on her face. As she lay on the couch suffering I tried something. In the Bible they would lay on hands and pray in Jesus name and people would be healed. So I tried it. I laid one hand on my daughters head and I prayed like I had not prayed in vary long time. No bargains or promises just a plea that my daughter's pain would go away and she could sleep. Jesus always said if you believe nothing was impossible. So I prayed "Please ease her pain. Please let her sleep. I know if I believe you will do this." Over and over. Well after about a minute she gave a big sigh and slipped into a deep sleep that lasted many hours. I sat there stunned. God had answered my prayer. Of course I wasn't so stunned as to forget to give a prayer of thanksgiving.
My next story involves a watch. When my son got married, my wife and I, bought him a dress pocket watch. Something nice to go with his tuxedo. It came in a nice wooden box and everything. Well we had bought it about a month in advance and I had placed it, I thought, in my dresser drawer with my grandfather's watch. Well the night before the wedding I go to get the watch and it is not there. Thus starts a three hour detailed search by my wife and I. No watch. Finally I knew only God could help. I prayed, "God please let me find this watch." Then I went back to my search. I moved a newspaper off of an easy chair and there sat the watch in its box. Now that watch did not sit there a month, nor did we miss looking at the chair while searching. No, it was another prayer answered.
My last story of a prayer answered I suppose could all be in my head. But I don't think so. I had worked for an alarm company for 22 years and then they were bought. I was the head of IT, the main fire alarm designer and the fire alarm license holder. I had built all of the systems in the building from the access control system to the telephones to the computer network. I thought the new owners would want me for sure. Well they didn't. So I went looking for work and found my dream job, a programmer for a small software company that supplies software to the alarm industry. Then came the problem. The company that had bought the alarm company did not want me permanently but would pay me thirty thousand dollars to work there for three months and guide things through the transition. But my dream job needed me now, they couldn't wait three months. If I Could not start in two or three weeks they would have to get someone else. What should I do? So I prayed for God to advise me. Everyday for a week I prayed. And then in church on Sunday I heard the answer. It was as if someone had whispered in my ear it was so real. The answer? "It doesn't matter." God was telling me to do what I wanted and He would take care of me. That Monday I turned in my two week notice, said thanks for the offer but no thanks and took my dream job where I still work today.
I have a friend who is a bit neutral toward religion but he accepts me and my faith. Well he had been fighting with a server for two days. It just would not do what he wanted it to. Now my friend is pretty smart. He has a master's degree in network technology and owned his own small internet service company till he sold it. So for him to struggle for two days is not only unheard of but very frustrating to him. So I was walking over toward where he was working, thinking to myself I would let him know I would pray for him and maybe that would boost his morale. When I heard him yell "That's it! I got it!" Now like I said, he is a very smart person made he would have figured it out just then anyway. Or maybe God knew what I was going to pray for before I even said my prayer.
My final story is about my son. He was having some trouble at work. And I had been praying hard for twenty four hours. I'd say a prayer if I woke up in the night to roll over. A quick prayer and then back to sleep. Well I went to my Tuesday night prayer group and explained why I was praying so hard and they promised to pray for my son also when they said their regular daily prayer. We finished our meeting and went our separate ways. When I got home my wife told me she had received a telephone call from our son and things were finally looking up and turning around. And then she said, "You talked about it in your group didn't you?" I said I had. She said "I thought so I could sense something" and then she told me what time my son had called. It was the same time my friends had said they would pray too. Another prayer answered before it was even spoken.
In Matthew chapter 6 verse 8, where Jesus is explaining how to pray to His disciples, He says, "your Father knows what things you need, before you ask Him." I have come to understand this in a dramatic way. Twice now God has answered my prayers in a way obvious to me, even before I said my prayer. So those are my miracles of not praying. God answered me even before I asked.
God Bless you and yours
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