A Few Thoughts

For the past few months both of us have been mulling over prayer. What is prayer? How do we pray? What is prayer good for? What should we pray for? Does prayer do anything? Thanks to a few good books (A Method for Prayer by Matthew Henry, A Guide to Prayer by Isaac Watts, and A Praying Life by Paul Miller) and numerous experiences of direct and specific answers to prayer, we have been able to witness God great love for us. At one point Jacob was at work and his nose began to bleed. He was the only person covering his department and did not want to leave his post, after saying a quick prayer that God would stop the bleeding a customer needed some assistance, for God's own glory he stopped the bloody nose! On a Tuesday night this month we prayed before we ate our dinner that God would grant us humility. An hour later we had conversation with a complete stranger and had opportunity to show God's love, simultaneously we both felt like total idiots. We both now say to be careful what we pray for or we just might get it, praise God for his wonderful treatment of his people.
Are these two examples of using prayer as a wishing method or God as a genie in a bottle? No, and God certainly hates being treated as a good luck charm. These are merely two instances of God response to his children for his own glory.