I’ve been surprised at how little Christians expect to see answers to prayer. I remember a church prayer meeting I attended, a very small group of perhaps 12 prayer warriors were gathered together near the front of the church sanctuary, not too impressive of a group, just the steady few committing to pray, out of perhaps 200 members. We were given a list of community and world needs and asked to pray in groups. I was happy when one of the few women I knew who was sitting in the wooden pew in front of me turned around and asked me to join her and her husband.

After our prayer time, she said “You pray with conviction. Like you really expect an answer.” I responded, “Of course,” but I was surprised. This woman was the leader of the Women’s Bible Study and Women’s ministry. I know she fully believes God’s Word, yet she appeared to be lacking confidence that God was listening and would answer our prayers. I’m wondering how common that is among all of us? I’ve often thought that joining a prayer group is probably akin to joining the chess club in High School, not the most popular event.

Of course, there are times when both Christians and non-Christians alike pray, like with my son-in-law’s battle with incurable Stage IV pancreatic cancer. Who wouldn’t pray? If there is any chance, no matter how small, that a miracle might happen, you gotta pray! But how convinced are we, even as Christians, that God answers even those prayers of desperation?

[Read more…]