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« Back to All Daily Grace

Why do we pray?

11.17.2018
|
Daily Grace

Why do we pray? Is it to change God’s mind, or ours, or both? What does it take to change God’s mind: Is it the mass, volume and sincerity of prayers? Or is it more of a dynamic relationship, one born of mutual attentiveness and bounded only by the constraints of realistic possibility? 

NPR reporter Cokie Roberts is rumored to have once said, “As long as algebra is taught in school, there will be prayer in school!” Along those same lines, we’ve all heard the saying that there’s no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole. 

At its root, prayer might be best described as an act of submission. We pray because we ultimately do depend on God for all things: not to orchestrate every moment and every matter, but to redeem them. 

This message is an excerpt from the Bible study “Let us pray” by Anna Madsen in the July/August 2018 issue of Gather magazine. 

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Women of the ELCA
6 Feb
Women of the ELCA
@WomenoftheELCA

As we continue celebrating the lives and stories of bold African Descent women this month, today’s blogger writes about Sojourner Truth and reminds us to continue to the work she began. womenoftheelca.org/blog/post/… #BlackHistoryMonth #mondaymotivation #livingherstory pic.twitter.com/R7LNZ5dsjS

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