‘Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need…’ (Hebrews 4:16)
How often do we feel that we are either witnessing or caught in the middle of what we would think of as an impossible situation and feel there is nothing at all we can do to affect the outcome? We have faith and we believe, and yes, we pray, yet still we feel so helpless. Why is this? Perhaps the answer lies in how we pray. Do we pray in expectation of a certain outcome and when that doesn’t happen we begin to question why we prayed in the first place? Or do we perhaps pray half-heartedly – not really expecting anything to happen anyway?
Prayer is one of the most powerful resources we have in our Christian faith, however, there are a couple of things we need to remember. Our prayers will not always be answered in the way we expect or hope them to be, nor will the fact that we are praying about a given situation suddenly result in that situation ‘disappearing’. But perhaps more importantly, when we come to prayer we need to do so with boldness, with conviction – with faith – knowing that God will hear and will answer. Perhaps not in the way we would want – but if we hold on to that faith, in a way which will reassure us that He is with us every step of the way.