Most of my prayers are brief and to the point, “Give me courage, God! Or “Please heal my friend.” I exhale a prayer of relief whenever a flight returns to smooth air after heavy turbulence. “Thank you that our plane did not crash.” I pray for victims of earthquakes and floods, and for people fleeing wars they did not choose: “God help them.” And I find myself praying daily after reading the news: “Christ, have mercy.”
Even so, sometimes I feel more cowardly than brave, no matter how often I ask God for courage, and I have friends who remain ill, despite the fervent prayers of their loved ones. People continue to die in wars and natural disasters, and bad news assaults us every day. When my prayers seem to be lacking, I take comfort in the words of the Apostle Paul: “Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).
This message is excerpted from “Closer to God” by Audrey West in the July/August 2018 Gather magazine. Today we commemorate Bartolome de Las Casas, missionary to the Indies, 1566.
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