We all have something that we want so badly in life – whether it is a car, a handphone, a job or someone special – and some of us pray very hard for that desire of ours to be fulfilled.
However, despite praying, that ‘want’ and desire of ours has yet to be fulfilled. And we know what happens next most of the time. We stop our prayer, thinking that our efforts will go down in vain.
Why does it boil down to this?
Simple, because we did not pray hard enough. More importantly, we lost our hope in prayer. This reflects the fickle mental makeup of the human race. For our prayer to be answered, we must have unflinching believe in it, and never doubt our prayer, no matter how long it takes.
But just how hard should we pray?
Seriously, I doubt there’s one definite answer to this question. I suppose that we should pray as hard as we can and that for different people and for different causes of prayer, our prayer will take varying time spans to be answered. Since no one can exactly tell us as to how hard to pray, the best would be to listen to our 'inner voice' and we would then know whether it is hard enough or otherwise.
Who are we offering our prayer to, and who will answer it?
This is another abstract question that warrants another abstract answer. Well, one of the greatest mysteries in life is that we would never see the ‘being’ whom we offer our prayer to – how does He look like, what does His voice sound like and is He a he in the first place or a she or neither.
The one thing for certain though is that we can feel Him – and we can feel His warmth. Whatever said and done, we all know that there is a superior being who watches over us at all times. Some call Him God, some call Him Ram, while others call Him Allah. To be exact, His names are infinite.
It is to Him that footballers embroiled in a tense penalty shoot-out close their eyes and clasp their hands and offer their prayer to. It is also to Him that a mother whose only son is fighting for his life in the ICU ward offers her prayer to. And when He feels our prayer is sufficient, He fulfills our desires.
Prayer without boundaries
For all the aforementioned instances, the type of prayer involved is materialistic prayer because what the humans in general want is always from the material world. There is nothing wrong with this but it is important to note that in actuality, prayer is geared more towards the spiritual side of our life.
It is only through divine prayer to the Almighty Lord that we attain salvation because prayer, in the spiritual context, is literally the food for our soul while our soul is actually our connection with God.
In a nutshell
Therefore, the next time you want something real bad and in spite of praying real hard you get nothing, don’t lose hope because it is a matter of having an unflinching belief in your prayer and to whom you are offering it to. And perhaps you might want to consider offering a prayer to Him for the benefit of your spiritual life too every so often.
What do you have to say about prayers, both in terms of a materialistic context and spiritual context? Feel free to drop a comment below to share your thoughts.
Posts
