Is prayer a waste of time?

It was 5:30 am, I woke up to a funny smell. It had been raining hard all night long. I went out and looked in the kitchen, there was a mousetrap floating by. I stepped back into the living room – suddenly water began pouring in from the bottom of the front door. I looked outside and saw nothing but water!  I bowed my head and began to pray – Every way I could think.

Please Lord stop the water! …Water I rebuke you in Jesus Name! Yehhhhh…Lord – blow from heaven a mighty blast from your nostril and split this water and send it to my neighbor, let me have dry land!...I claim this water outahear!...Lord if you love me – just wake me up from this nightmare…Lord---Why?

So I guess prayer does not work – right? Wrong! By the time the water was up to my hip, I was bowing my head thanking God for His control over the situation, and for guidance of what to do now. A peace flooded my soul…the water was still there…my appliances were still floating! Everything remained the same – except me!

Prayer is not our way to turn God into Santa Claus. We won’t always get what we want – Thank God for that! Prayer aligns our heart and mind to enable us to accept the will of our Father, and also trust and thank Him for what He is allowing.

I want to share four reasons why we should look forward to praying, I will share one at a time so we will have time to digest the thought.

{1} Because of Christ we "are not our own", we belong to Him, not ourselves.

Please understand this reality cuts both ways! While this reality riles our flesh (sin nature) because, especially today, we are so much into “our rights” that it is difficult to humble that flesh and submit to God as our Master, we need to remember what kind of Master He is! Someone Who sacrificed the ultimate for you! How hard is it to submit to that? Yes, everything of ours is His, BUT Everything that is His is ours! This is not health, wealth talk, it is realizing that anything and everything that we need and desire can be granted to us IF our loving Father knows it would be best.

Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Galatians 4:7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

The So What: When something terrible happens, what is the first thing you do? When something great happens, what is the first thing you do? When you are faced with Giants or Mountains blocking your way, do you keep your eyes on them? Where should you look?