Therefore We Pray
You will be with Me in Paradise…Luke 23:43
Could this place called “paradise” be a place more real than this place where we live? Could Paradise be a reality more real than what our five senses can detect? If so, then we live in a material world attempting to speak to Someone in a spiritual world; the real world.
Maybe this is why prayer can be so difficult. We are so controlled by this material world; we doubt our prayers. Face it, we are talking to someone we cannot see. It is not that we don’t believe—we do believe—but many times we find it difficult to shed years of indoctrination. Reality is only what we can explain. All else is fantasy; perhaps worse, lunacy. Then, God answers our prayer! A reality.
“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” Tommy Lasorda, former manager of the LA Dodgers. This quote appears on each of our prayer chain emails. In the world of professional baseball, “the possible lies in a person’s determination.” In the world of prayer, the difference between the impossible and the possible lies with God.
Jesus encouraged persistent prayer with a parable, Luke 18:1-8. In this parable a widow was relentless in her plea for justice from an unjust judge. Paul repeats the idea in Ephesians 6:18: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance… As does James, 5:16: the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. So, we are well advised to expect the impossible with determination.
Therein lies the problem. We too often pray without expecting an answer. Or, we pray expecting our will and not His will. Or, we pray as though our prayers are unheard, unwanted, therefore, unanswered. This world is not our home. We are headed to Paradise, that place where God dwells. We are destined for that new heaven and new earth where God Himself will be with us, Revelation 21:3, and be our God! Never stop praying for those who may be left behind when Jesus comes to take us to be with Him!
