Here is a reflection on prayer written by Michael Collie that I found encouraging and motivating:
Prayer is brave
We only pray for things that are so marvellous and so ambitious that to some people they might sound implausible. To some your prayers will sound naive or reckless. Only God answers prayer but you can be the answer to someone else's prayer. We pray that we might imitate Jesus and become generous, loving and courageous.
Prayer is hopeful
We don't pray for what comes naturally. We don't pray for what is inevitable. We don't pray for what will happen anyway. What's the point? No, we pray for what doesn't come naturally. We pray for what can only occur if God intervenes. We pray for what is impossible. We only pray for miracles.
Prayer is trusting The God of Jesus of Nazareth did the impossible. God did what did not come naturally. God did for us what we cannot do for ourselves, God saved us from our selfishness and rebellion. Jesus shows us what love looks like. Thanks to Jesus we can be forgiven. Thanks to Jesus we can learn to forgive. Jesus is the fulfilment of God's promise to make us his children so that we might be a blessing to others and enjoy him forever. When we pray we are reminded that God is faith and trustworthy even when we are not. When we pray we respond to God's faithfulness. When we pray we trust him.
Let us pray.
Reproduced with permission. Michael Collie is the National Director for SparkLit a Christian organisation advancing God's kingdom by empowering Christian writers, publishers and distributors around the world. Their tagline is "Where the Gospel is preached, books are needed". Let me encourage you to click on sparklit.org to find out more and support their valuable work.