A sermon by Rev. Dr. Hugh Smith III   
   

     The greatest power in the world is the power of prayer. Prayer is the expression of the loving inter-dependent relationship between a human being and the open heart of a very real and personal God. Prayer is the release of the inmost essence of who we are. Prayer is the stillpoint within where we are most real to ourselves, and in that moment of awareness, God is most real to us. Prayer is the holy communion. It is a willingness and openness to the inflowing of the Divine Presence. It is a willingness to be vulnerable, and in that honest vulnerability, to come alive to and be empowered by the unconditional love of God that holds our lives.
As we are humbly disclosed before God in prayer, God is disclosed to us; and paradoxically, in that quiet, still moment, we become empowered by the awareness that we are not only with God, but God is with us, God is part of us, God cares for us, and God offers us God's own Life Force of Holy Spirit. When we pray, we are with God, God is with us, God is in us, and we are in God.

     Jesus made some rather profound statements about prayer. He said things so clearly and so simply. At one point, when what he said seemed unbelievable he added, "As if that were not so, I would have told you." The words of Jesus can be trusted. Jesus said that the true power of prayer is discovered when it is practiced in private. "Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret." It is in the secret closet of our aloneness that we can be most honest with God. In the solitude of private prayer we become most aware of who we are and who we are not. Jesus said that even though God knows our every need before we ask, nevertheless, God wants and needs us to ask. And that if we do ask, God is more ready to give that which is good and fulfilling for our lives than when we are even ready to ask for it. God waits, hovering in love, waiting to give us the things that would help us. Jesus boldly stated that there is nothing that is impossible through prayer. He said, "Whatever you ask for in faith, without doubting, God will give it to you." Jesus' statements are so simple, so powerful, so life changing.

     Whether we practice private prayer, and whether we continually strive in our own lives to improve our relationship with God depends ultimately, not on whether we think God is real or not, but rather whether we believe God is not only real, but is also a God who is personal. At the center of the universe there is a God who does love you. We come to prayer when we become convinced that in the miracle of it all, there is One who knows me as I truly am, knows my needs, knows the number of hairs on my head, knows when the sparrow falls to the ground, knows me by name. When one believes that truth as Jesus proclaimed it, when one sees in God the very face of love unveiled to us in the face of Jesus, you become willing to turn to God in all things. The true power of prayer can be found by every single person who willingly goes to the private place of their souls and opens their heart to God. If in that still place we open ourselves in trust to the very real presence of the Divine, and if we accept and trust that God is there with us, for us, in that act of the soul, in that opening of ourselves to God's unconditional love, an amazing shift takes place in our lives. There is a changing of things. We sense a newness emerging, not only in our lives, but it begins to occur in the lives of the people around us and in the situations in which we live. Through prayer the creative energy of love is released and life becomes altered in ways we never would expect, nor can we explain.
 
     Prayer is not simply an act or event, but if prayer means anything in our lives, it becomes a life process for us. In the ninth chapter of Acts there is a story recorded that is most instructive in understanding the way in which prayer is a process, a way in which we can approach all of life. Following the Pentecost experience, Peter became fully convinced that the Risen power of Christ was not only available to us, but can work through us in prayer. He approached all things, even the death of Tabitha the disciple, in prayer. I believe as we look at Peter's actions in the story of the raising of Tabitha to life, we can discover certain principles that we can adopt in our own lives that will allow us to discover the power that comes through private prayer that can change us and release God' life-giving energy to us and through us to others. By looking at the actions of Peter, we can uncover five principles of prayer.

     Peter was called by something other than himself to come over to where Tabitha had died. The call of need came to him through others, "Come and see." Peter responded to the call that came to him to go and behold, to go and see. He responded to the voice and need of others that was directing him. The truth is that God is calling all of us to prayer. There is something within each of us, an urging that comes in some form or another to us. There is a calling in our hearts, an urging within us to reach out to something beyond us. God wants us to be in a life relationship with you and me. God will use all things, events, dissatisfactions, situations, needs of other people, words from another, urges within, all things to draw us to himself in order to release new life to us and through us.

     The first principle of prayer is to accept that there is a call, an urging within, a restlessness that comes from God. God is calling you to prayer, to come and rest your life in him. God wants us to trust all things to his love and care. God wants to live in and through us and to have us become aware that our lives are with God. The first principal of prayer is to acknowledge that the restlessness of our souls is an urging of God to come, to reach beyond ourselves to the One who waits. When we "go and see", when we respond to what is calling our hearts, the power of prayer begins to link us to God.

     Peter responded to the urging and goes to the town of Joppa where Tabitha the disciple has died. He was immediately ushered upstairs where she lay upon the bed. He was surrounded by the weeping widows who were wailing and crying because of what had happened. Peter's first task was to remove the weeping widows from the upper room. He removed all the voices of negativity from the place of need, from the place of prayer. The second principle of prayer is that we need to approach prayer by removing all of the negativity and negative expectations from our lives.

     A lot of times we go to prayer with negativity, and we bring a negative attitude to what we expect from God. We need to remove from ourselves all of the negative expectations and the negative thoughts about God, about ourselves, about what has happened to us. God is good. God wants the best for us. God loves us. We need to remove all of the distractions of negativity from God's goodness. We need to take all of the negative voices in our heads and hearts and usher them out of the room of prayer. To come to prayer means to be prepared to remove the negativity from your life. Prayer is the release of positive power. Things can work. God is for you. Peter removed the weeping widows. When we come to a place of private prayer, we need to consciously remove the negative expectations from our lives. Send out the voices of what can't be. Prayer is about what can be. Only when he found his solitude before God's goodness did he kneel in prayer.
 
     The third principal is that something within us must kneel before God. The old spiritual speaks a truth, "When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, Lord have mercy on me."  When we humble ourselves before the wonder of the creative God, we are then ready for the goodness and mercy that God longs to give. The heartbeat at the center of prayer is acknowledging that God does have mercy and that everything does depend on God's goodness and mercy. As surely as the sun rises in the sky, or the cell divides in your body, or your next breath is taken, it all depends upon God. At the center of the Christian faith is the realization that all of our ego striving and all of my wanting to control and fix things needs to be released. Kneeling down in your heart, humbling yourself before the Divine power of God, acknowledging and admitting that everything in my life depends upon God, being humbly aware that everything that is from God is good, and willingly giving over to the wonder of that Divine Presence and Power is the heart of prayer. It is to say, "Into Thy hands God do I commend my life. Into Thy hands do I empty this concern, this care, this love, this sorrow, this joy." The heart of prayer is to kneel in our hearts, to humble ourselves and release all to God, the God who makes the sun rise, the God of all creation.
Then one must look up prayerfully from prayer.  This is the fourth principle, to turn from prayer looking prayerfully for the life and possibility God is bringing. Peter turns from his prayer and says, "Tabitha, get up." A lot of us know how to pray, but we don't know how to get up in prayer. We lay it before God, and then we take it back and worry about it every step of the way. We pray to God, "Oh God, help me with this situation," but then immediately we act as if God has nothing to do with this situation.    The fourth principle is to turn from that prayer with the conviction and understanding that God has answered my prayer. 

     The Bible does not say that God sometimes answers and sometimes does not. It says God answers your prayer. If God is good and wants the ultimate fulfillment and healing for your life and mine, the fulfillment and healing of all our lives, then even though we cannot fully understand how or when or where or in what way our prayer is answered; nevertheless, we believe it is answered. In faith we begin to look for the positive signs and evidence of God's goodness at work in our lives. We turn with positive expectation. "Tabitha, get up." We need to turn from prayer in prayer, looking prayerfully at life, seeking the signs of grace. God has answered the prayer. God answers every prayer.   We need to turn as if we believe that God has heard our prayers and truly is working in our lives. No more negativity. No more fear. We look for where the blossoms are blooming. Where are there springs of water waiting to break forth from dry ground? Where is healing happening? It usually occurs in a way we never expected. Seek and you shall find. Ask and it shall be given. Knock and it will be opened to you.

     The fifth principle is that God invites us to become a partner, a co-creator with him in the new life he has brought. The fifth principle is the faithful follow-through to the grace we receive. We are invited into a partnership through prayer. When we see signs of new life, when we sense a new breath being breathed through us, when we see something of goodness and new life arising, we need to respond to nurture that new life. We are in partnership with God through prayer. Peter, seeing Tabitha sit up on the side of the bed, offered her his hand and helped her get up. 
I think that there is a need for all of us to understand that when we pray we become partners with God in bringing forth new life. If there are signs of renewal and healing that come, a change that begins to happen, some breakthrough of love or grace or possibility is found, there is some evidence that healing and forgiveness is occurring, God looks for our hand to reach out and help this new life get on its feet. We ourselves are co-creators in prayer with God. We are secretly in partnership with a miracle-making God. All of us can pray for healing in our lives, but when new life and wholeness is revealed to us, if we do not take hold of it and follow through with it, we will not be well. God gives the first sign, God brings the newness, opens possibility, but we have to offer the hand to get the miracle off the bed and on its feet. The final principle is to know that God needs and expects us to become a partner in the birthing of the new life that God is bringing to us and through us.

     Prayer is a life process. It is not something that occurs only when you fall on your knees with your face to the rising sun. Prayer happens with every step you take, in every breath you breathe. Prayer is a life process. It happens before you kneel and after you come up on your feet. It becomes a rhythm of your living. It is a continuing act of giving over everything to God, yielding to the power of God's love, living with a quiet, confident awareness that the God who loves you is actively at work with you, at work within all things in your life.
There is no half-way praying. You either believe in prayer and start praying or you don't. The energy of God's re-creative love is released each time we pray. Slowly life begins to change. Possibility becomes born. Prayer is the inflowing of the Divine Love into and through our mortal lives. Prayer is the means by which God continues to create all things new. Prayer is the most powerful, life-giving force on earth. It is a partnership with the Divine that is open to us all. And you discover in the process of prayer that not only does life begin to change, but you yourself become changed.