HOW DO YOU PRAY, AND WHAT DO YOU PRAY ABOUT?

I recently read a post by one of my brothers bordering on prayers and it got me thinking about this ALL-IMPORTANT communication tool. In the part of the world where I live, most of our prayers are indicators of deprivation and lack. We pray for provision of basic amenities like food, clothing, shelter because our government is largely irresponsible in the development of policies that could have been harbingers for sustainable wealth creation and development. We pray for protection primarily because the police and other security apparatus has proven to be perennially ineffective, unreliable and inefficient, and not necessarily because we believe in God to keep us safe though God can and still do.

We daily pray for journey mercies because our roads are bad and are death traps. You hear shouts of ‘Jesus’ or ‘Allah Akbar’ at any slight instance of a near miss on the road. Though this does not necessarily reflect a deep faith in the Almighty that promised to keep our going out and coming in, but our fear of facing the consequences of our collective mumuism as a people.

We pray for our enemies to die by fire (prayers motivated by hate and revenge) because our judicial system is pitiable and not because we believe it when God says, ‘Vengeance is mine’ We pray for healing and good health because our hospitals have continually proven to be mortuaries in disguise due to the dearth of appropriate facilities and necessary support to make it functional.

We pray for academic success to eke out a living and not because we want to advance the cause of humanity. Unfortunately, most of our prayers point to one fact- the abdication of our thoughts, self-centredness, and deficiency of genuine love and care for others.

Yet we have a template from the master for how prayers should be directed. We have a template that portrays and give an assurance of a loving God, such that reflects a relationship, an undying love, a consciousness of our purpose as human and a guide unto our daily living etc. I think if our prayers are tailored according to such template of assurance, while we consciously live and let live according to God’s will, we can be assured of speedy answers always. We would never pray amiss - Morenikeji Ajala is a Banker. He lives in Lagos Nigeria