Greg Johnson, Pastor of Standing Together, invited me and some friends to a morning celebration of the National Day of Prayer. It was a fabulous meeting with people from a variety of backgrounds. Our governor, Gary Herbert, attended, speaking on prayer’s importance to our Country and its future.
Greg also had a Reverend from K2 church speak (I don’t remember his name, sorry). He had a very interesting approach to teaching us the value of prayer. He started by offering a personal story of an event he and a friend had earlier in their lives.
This Reverend is from Michigan (flat state, low elevation) and was traveling to the Rocky Mountain States to hike, wishing to summit a peak. They arrived at Yellowstone National Park and headed up the hillside. They learned very early in their voyage that they were not used to the altitude. Being short of oxygen, they stopped to catch their breath, with some of the stops requiring that they lay down to rest.
When they finally reached the top, they celebrated, took pictures, and lay down there. After spending time at the summit, they returned to the parking lot to find they had lost their keys. They deliberated calling someone to help but found it easier to hike back up, looking for the keys along the way in places they rested. They wanted to see if they had fallen out of their pockets.
At each stop, they were disappointed to find no keys. Reaching the peak a second time, thinking this would be where the keys were, they aggressively searched around. Nothing, there was no sign of the keys anywhere. Discouraged, the Minister decided to pray. He thought God knew where the keys were and were perhaps entertained by them hiking around, not finding them.
After offering a quick prayer, he approached his friend leaning against a rock. His friend was pointing to the ground, he looked down, and there they were. They chest bumped and marched happily back down to the parking lot.
One may think his message was to pray for things we need, but it wasn’t. He used this as an example, stating God does know everything, but this knowledge includes knowing what is best for us.
He then had us recite the Lord’s Prayer, which states, “Thy will be done…” He offered that while we often pray for things we think we want or need, it may not be what we get. We may offer sincere thoughts of what we believe we require, finding ourselves discouraged when these wishes don’t come true. He had us reflect on those times in our past, suggesting that we will realize what happened (which may have been different from our desires) was what we needed or was best for us at the time.
Pray, pray often; understand answers given, whether meeting our desires or not, are what is best for us.
Jaren
