I learned about prayer in church

I believe that God answers prayer... I do... I pray to God in "my closet" and have seen Him answer prayers before. I believe in it. However, I learned Sunday that I have imperfect faith.

At the end of the 2nd service, Pastor Grace gave an invitation for any lost in the room to respond to the message. After singing a verse or two, he broadened the scope of the invitation to anyone that needed prayer for something, whether it be physical in their lives, or in someone they knew, or maybe praying for someone that's lost, etc... He asked them to come forward and then he would pray for them all as a whole. Here are some of the thoughts that started going through my mind when Pastor began to open the invitation - and please forgive me for simply confessing my Phariseeism, I hope I don't lose too many readers over this.

- "Boy, I wonder who is going to go forward because they think their problems are some 'super-problems'..."
- "I wonder who will go forward so that the church will feel bad for them"
- "I wouldn't ever go up, so that people would never think those things about me..."

I think you get the point. I was questioning the motives of everyone that was going to be going up (Pastor hadn't even finished what he was saying, so nobody had moved yet.) And because I wouldn't want to ever look like "those people" I would never go up myself.

Then I got floored. As soon as Pastor finished talking about it, without an instant of hesitation, Marcia Ferris moves out of her seat and goes to the front (along with many others). I thought for a second:

- "Boy, Mrs. Ferris' problems are real 'super-problems.'"
- "Mrs. Ferris isn't going to the front for people to see her and feel bad for her."
- "Mrs. Ferris isn't too concerned about what people were thinking about her right then."

So, I began to ask myself why she moved that quick to go forward. That's when I realized that Mrs. Ferris actually believes in prayer. She believes in the God that answers prayer. She did not hesitate for one second, because as soon as our Pastor volunteered to offer up a prayer for anybody, she knew she wanted to be a part of that - why? because she knows that prayer is real - that God is real.

Yeah, I pray... I've seen God answer my prayers... but I still don't believe in prayer like Mrs. Ferris. Hopefully, I will be more intent on praying and praying fervently. Thanks, Mrs. Ferris for teaching me a lesson at church (...we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses). I may not remember the message for a long time, but I will remember what I learned at church yesterday.

Just a thought...

Andy Hinds