Árdís - 01.01.1958, Page 21

Ársrit Bandalags lúterskra kvenna
19
"And When You Pray"
Delivered ai L.W.L. Conveniion ai Sunrise Camp
June 20, 1958 by Ruih A. Day
Some years ago I prepared a paper on the development of
religion — from its earliest and most pagan forms to the highest
form. I learned that the history of religion is the history of prayer.
Because I have the type of mind that likes to trace things from
the beginning, it seemed to me that this approach would be most
effective in discussing prayer with you.
Prayer is natural. From the very beginning, Man has turned
to his Creator as a child turns to its mother, in times of need.
Down through the centuries, and even today among primitive
people in out of the way places of the world, we find men turning
to some kind of god in moments of fear, danger, emergency, or
crisis, — trying to bend the will of the god to the will of the person
praying; sometimes using incantations, charms, magic, voodoo, or
ritual dance as a means of swaying the diety’s will. Such prayer
is childish, selfish. It bargains with the god — makes him an
errand boy.
Many Christians today try to pray on this level, asking God
to GIVE this and NOT ALLOW that. If these prayers are not
answered at once, faith dies. “It does no good to pray. God does
not hear.”
A second approach to prayer comes as a reaction to the failure
of the first method. It requires no answer and is a sort of spiritual
gymnastics by which we sooth our own spirits, calm our own fears;
— a helpful soliloquy, a comforting monologue, “praying to one-
self,” autosuggestion. It may be helpful meditation. It is not prayer.
WHAT THEN IS PRAYER?
Let us look for a definition.
Prayer is communion with God.
Prayer is talking to and listening to God.
Prayer is the search of the soul for God, rather than His gifts.