Prayer is not getting ready to live the Christian life. Prayer is living the Christian Life. People who have put their faith and confidence in Jesus follow Him. Their lives are not perfect, but they strive to live in a way that will please God. They will talk to Him in prayer and listen to Him in His Word.

Years ago I heard the story of a pastor who had a kitten that climbed up a tree in his backyard and was afraid to come down. He tried to coax it, offer it food and milk, even shook the tree a little, but nothing worked. The cat wouldn’t come down. The tree was too tall for him to reach up into it, but it was not sturdy enough for him to climb, so the pastor decided that if he tied a rope to his car and pulled it until the tree bent down, he could probably reach up and get the cat. So he attached the rope to the tree and his car and carefully pulled the tree down, all the while checking his progress. He needed to go just a little bit further, he figured, in order to be able to reach the cat, when suddenly the rope broke. The tree snapped back up and launched that cat through the air and out of sight. The pastor felt terrible. He walked all over the neighborhood asking people if they had seen a kitten. No luck. So He prayed, “Lord, I just commit this kitten to your keeping” and went on about his business. A few days later, he saw one of his members in the grocery store. He noticed she had cat food in her basket, but he knew she was a cat hater, so he asked her about it. She said, “You won’t believe this. My daughter has been begging me for a cat, but I told her ‘no!’ She kept asking and begging and pleading, so finally I said, ‘Well, if God gives you a cat, I’ll let you keep it.’  I watched my little girl go in the back yard, get on her knees and ask God for a cat. And I wouldn’t believe this if I had not seen it with my own eyes. A kitten came flying out of the sky with its paws outstretched and landed in the yard right in front of her.”

Prayer is not getting ready to live the Christian life. Prayer is living the Christian Life. It is an integral part of our existence as disciples. Conversations with our Lord may sound like this:

• “God, I don’t understand why you did this – help me figure out what is going on and what I’m supposed to do.”
• “I’m angry right now. This isn’t what I wanted, this isn’t what I expected.”
• “I know something is going on with my friend right now, but I don’t know what it is. Be with her and help her and show her your love. And let me know what I can do to help her, too.”

Prayer is not getting ready to live the Christian life. Prayer is living the Christian Life.

It keeps us in constant contact with the one who loved us enough to die in our place and earn our forgiveness. That doesn’t mean all our problems and difficulties, our lack of understanding and our anger just go away. It means we have confidence as we deal with our problems and difficulties and anger and lack of understanding.