“We’re all learning. That’s why we’re having this lesson, Karen,” encouraged Jose. “So, just say it any way you want to.”
“Okay, I’ll try. You see, my sister wanted to get a part in this school play, and so did another girl. She wanted the same part. She, the other girl, got it and told my sister it was because she prayed. My sister told me that she forgot to pray, and so that’s why she didn’t get the part. She thinks now, you know, that God likes the other girl better.”
“Well, first of all, prayer isn’t a magic formula for getting everything we might want. Some people even pray for parking spaces, expecting God to look out for their convenience. The other girl may have gotten the part because she worked hard to get it, or the person making the decision liked her acting. God gets blamed for answering prayers that He didn’t, as well as for not answering prayers that He did.”
At this point, Sandy raised her hand. “My stepfather says that faith in God doesn’t do any harm, but it doesn’t do any good, either. He says all the time, ‘If you want something to happen, you’ve got to make it happen . . . yourself.’ And he’s very successful, but,” Sandy said quietly to herself, “he’s not very happy about it.”
“I’m sorry that your stepfather feels that way about prayer. Perhaps, in time, you could influence him to give faith in God a chance.”
Speaking slowly, as if thinking hard about Richard’s words, Sandy responded, “My stepfather does ask me what I’m learning in school and what I’m hearing in church. I always tell him, ‘Just the usual stuff.’ But next time he asks about church, I’ll try to give him the things we’ve learned about prayer.”
“Good for you, Sandy. If you haven’t already, you could also invite your stepfather to church.” Richard’s suggestion brought approving looks from the group.
“Richard,” asked Jan, “do you think that prayer really makes a difference when you’re sick? Grandmother Bessie prays for everyone in the family everyday. I know she does because once when she was visiting I heard her in her room praying. And, whenever anyone in the family is sick my mother calls grandmother so she can pray for their healing.”
“Jan, I believe, first, that God hears every prayer, and second, that He answers every believer’s prayer, including those that ask for His healing touch. As much as others might love us, He loves us better. Studies show that prayer makes a big difference in people’s healing. Prayer enables people to recover more rapidly from surgery, and to suffer less pain and disability. Prayer is powerful! Pray for each other. Pray for God’s blessings in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray . . .”
Thinking that Richard had completed his thought, Kimberly interrupted, saying, “But what if you don’t know what to pray for when someone’s sick. I mean what if someone wants to die because he has a lot of pain, like my Uncle Gilbert?”
“I wish you’d save questions like that for Cal,” pleaded Richard. “I’m not a minister. I’m just a believer with a little more experience than you have.”
“That’s okay,” encouraged Jose. “We’ll ask Cal, too, but we want to know what you think. Right?”
Richard smiled in resignation to a chorus of “Right!” from the group. “Kimberly, I believe when we’re praying for someone who’s ill or, let’s say, in trouble, and we’re not sure what to pray for, then it’s best to simply put that person in God’s hands and trust Him to do what’s best, rather than to tell God what we want Him to do.”
“Yes, but how do you know what God did in answering your prayer?”
“You’re Ken, aren’t you?” asked Richard.
“Yes.”
“Well Ken, that’s where faith comes in.” Richard thought for a moment and added, “We can believe that whatever is the outcome of our prayer, it’s always going to be in the direction of what’s best for the person we prayed for. However, we may not recognize the answer to our prayer, because the result is not what we expected. The result may seem negative in physical terms, but in spiritual terms it may be positive. Someone I know had to lose everything—his wife, his material possessions, even his sight—before he could see his need of Christ in his life. After he accepted Christ, his wife eventually returned and found him a changed man. She helped him adjust to his loss of sight. Through it all, his mother and his friends never stopped praying for him.”
Brett, who had been silent to this point, suddenly blurted out, “I know it says somewhere in Matthew that we should pray for our enemies. But I don’t get it. Like why should I pray for a guy who wants to give me trouble? Seems to me it’s a waste of a good prayer.”
Brett’s question elicited several “yeahs” and nods of agreement from members of the group, as they waited for Richard’s reply.
Richard opened his Bible and turned to Matthew 5:44 and read: “‘But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.’ Here Jesus tells us not only to pray for our enemies, but to love them.”
“Brett’s question is a good one. I think the group should answer it, and I believe there are several possible answers. So,” encouraged Richard, “would someone like to begin?”
Following a brief pause, Jose said, “We should love our enemies and pray for them because Jesus told us to. After all, He was able to forgive and pray for the soldiers that crucified Him.”
Karen raised her hand. “Well, you know, as Christians we should be different than the world that says hate your enemies. We’ve seen what happens with that in the schools where kids are killing other kids.”
“That’s a good point, Karen!” offered Lee. “We can win people to Christ by turning the other cheek and caring more about their souls than their insults to us. And that’s where prayer comes in.”
“If we don’t pray for people because we’re angry at them for what they’ve done against us, then that anger hurts us, and we become like them. So, we let them hurt us twice.”
“You’re absolutely right, Rachael,” responded Richard. “I remember something that Norman Cousins wrote in one of his books. He said that negative feelings take up a lot of space in the human mind; they influence our perceptions, our prospects in life, and our pleasures. He also said that the lack of forgiveness can cause physical problems and diseases.”
“Maybe by loving our enemies and remembering them in prayer we can help bring them closer to God. Don’t you think?” asked Sara.
Richard agreed and waited for someone else to speak.
“It seems to me,” commented Jimmy, “that praying for someone who doesn’t like you is pretty practical. It’s like making up your mind to find something good about the person and not give up on him and decide he’s an enemy. As my dad says, ‘You don’t need another enemy, but you do need another friend.’ He used to tell me that when I would get into fights in grade school.”
“Yeah,” said Lee mischievously, “your dad got tired of seeing you get beat up all the time.”
Before Jimmy could give a rejoinder to Lee’s remark, Richard said, “Jimmy, I like what your dad says. One of my Uncle Mac’s favorite authors is Ralph Waldo Emerson. One quote from Emerson goes like this: ‘He who has a thousand friends / has not a friend / to spare, and he who has one enemy / will meet him everywhere’.”
“I like that quote,” said Debbie. “Would you repeat it so I can write it down?”
Richard repeated it while several teens in the group copied Emerson’s words.
During the remainder of the meeting, the group focused its discussion on the need for discipline in developing a prayer life. As Jose noted, “It’s kind of difficult to get prayer from church to home.”
In closing the meeting, Richard asked each of the youth