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| Our house, from the air (thank you Mark M!) |
The Jesus-follower who has a praying life is involved in the kingdom activity of God. While there are many things we know about the ways of God, there are far more mysteries and unknowns, not to God, but to us. To pray is to move within the mysteries of God's kingdom. Ray Anderson writes:
“Prayer is not a means of removing the unknown and unpredictable elements in life, but rather a way of including the unknown and unpredictable in the outworking of the grace of God in our lives.” (Quoted in Philip Yancey, Prayer, Kindle Locations 1508-1509)
Yancey cites Jesus' prayer to discern who his disciples will be. The answer of Jesus' praying became the traitor Judas, Simon Peter who needed anger management help, and the "Sons of Thunder." Why these, I would have asked? Yancey writes:
"In the end, all twelve failed him at the hour of his deepest need. Eventually, however, eleven of the twelve underwent a slow but steady transformation, providing a kind of long-term answer to Jesus’ original prayer." (Kindle Locations 1511-1513)
As I pray and sometime do not see the answers I was hoping for I must remember that God sees the larger picture and is able to weave things together for the good of his kingdom.
