A few weeks ago, I shared in a sermon how I struggled with prayer early in my ministry career. After attending a workshop on prayer, I realized that my struggle was that I couldn’t let go of the image in my head of how I expected God to act and answer my prayers. This hang-up stood in my way of praying. Simply put, I longed for the extraordinary but continued to struggle with the ordinary and wondered why God didn’t answer my prayers in the way that I thought. I believe that amazing things happen when God’s people pray because prayer changes people, and people change things.

Most of our prayers include thanking God, asking for help and forgiveness, and seeking to make important things happen. But it often surprises us when God works through the common to answer our prayers in ways we never imagined. We’re ordinary people who pray through everyday events, expecting God to answer in extraordinary ways.

Most of our prayers center on one of these five areas:

• Gratitude and thanksgiving
• The needs of our family and community
• Personal help in crises
• Our health and wellness
• Confession and forgiveness

As I’ve said on many occasions, prayer is simply talking to and, more importantly, listening to God. Rather than a monologue with a “to-do-wish list” for God, prayer can be broken down into a unique pattern of PRAY, which stands for: 

Praise - Thanking God for His amazing grace and mercy given to us.

Reflect - Focusing on how God might use ordinary events to speak to us.

Ask - Seeking God’s direction and will for our lives, families, and communities.

Yield - Actively waiting on God to provide a response and understanding.

During March, a few of you are participating in a study on prayer. Because we don’t want anyone to be left out on the importance of prayer, we’ve created a 4-week sermon series called PRAY. We will reflect on the words of the Lord’s Prayer and provide you with a way to practice spending time with God in prayer or worship. 

Please join us as we Do Life Together by praying for each other, our church, our community, and our world. Let’s see how God will do amazing things in our midst as we pray!

At the Intersection,

Dr. Quincy D. Brown