"Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference." - Max Lucado

In the Middle School Sunday Morning Faith Formation we have started a series about prayer. The topics range from what is prayer, how do you pray, to is prayer important. 

I have had many conversations over the years about prayer. Some people consider prayer any conversation with God, some say it's in little moments throughout the day, some say prayer needs to be with a certain structure. As we are learning about the different ways past church leaders have talked about prayer and its structure requirements, one thing has become very clear to the middle school class. Prayer, no matter how it’s done, is an intentional way to release something from our own shoulders and heart and ask God to take it from us. 

This can often be an incredibly hard thing to do. ‘Letting Go and Letting God’ sounds nice but truly releasing and not trying to control the outcome on our own can be extremely hard! But, as Max Lucado reminds us, the power is in the one who hears it. We may not always know what to pray or how to pray it but I believe God is always listening to our heart and knows what our prayer really is. One of my favorite prayers to do is The Peace Prayer of Saint Francis. When I am feeling the weight of the world it always makes me feel a little lighter.

 

The Peace Prayer of Saint Francis. 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in self-forgetting that we find;
And it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.