Prayer

“Is prayer your steering wheel, or your spare tire?”
- Corrie Ten Boom

At the moment in my home group, we are working through a study on ‘Decisions’, and no sooner had we started this quote was spoken. And it made for an interesting ten minute discussion.
Corrie is making a distinction between the believer who submits their decisions to God in prayer, and the believer who prays “when they need it”. Let’s face it – you don’t need a spare tire unless one in use goes flat. And let’s be honest – most of the time when we play heartfelt, fervent prayers, we either want something, or are going through a rough patch in our lives. And when all is well, we don’t tend to pray as much. Is this you?
I know I can resonate with Corrie’s quote. I’m going through a patch myself, and prayer has taken the forefront in this time of need. And if I look back to before this patch, my prayers weren’t nearly as frequent.
In the context of our home group study, we all are guilty of this. We all too often make up our own minds, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But how often do we involve God in our decision-making? God wants the best for us; that much is obvious. He loves us to bits, unconditionally. But He also wants to know how we’re getting along, how we’re finding life, what makes us tick and what ticks us off. In short, God wants to know what’s up. How often do we long to make lofty, spiritual prayers, when all He wants is us to come to Him as we would a friend? The God that entered into our existence, entered into our pain, wants to enter into our lives and our hearts.

Let’s make prayer our steering wheel!