Trusting Our Own Prayer

My day is filled with “running prayers”. Running prayers are not the solid chunks of time to sit and study the Bible or to read for my spiritual edification. They are not the certain rhythm of the Hours: Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer and Compline. They are not the time of meditation of contemplation, just being with God. The “running prayers” are the chatty hanging with (what my twelve-year old would call) my bff prayers. “Good morning God, thank you for the night of sleep. Thank you for my husband getting up early with the toddler. Bless them into this day. Please shove me out of this bed to work out. Thank you. Unclench my teeth as I try to rouse the preteen. Help me to shape this day under your guidance.” Listening to the news of the day “Be with all the people who are homeless or are living in fear of losing their homes or their livelihood” “Attend those detained without trial. Be with hostages and their families. Be with those wrongfully arrested”. Then “go ahead of me into my meeting”...and so on through the day.
A friend sent me an email last week. She had helped out someone laden with too many bags. The person had emailed her thanks and said in the message “I had been praying for an angel to help me, and there you were.” What was interesting to me was the surprise. The surprise of having a prayer answered “Yes” in the moment. I do not write this as a criticism, I note it as a reality. A bishop once said “When I pray coincidences happen. When I don’t, they don’t.”

God always answers our prayers. God may answer “Yes”. God may answer “No” or the answer may be “Not yet.” Our role is to ask and trust that God wants good for us.