BE AT PEACE WITH THE YOURSELF

by Adam Harbinson

I listened to the American writer Philip Yancey a couple of weeks ago when he was visiting Belfast promoting his new book: 'Prayer - does it make any difference?' He says it does, I think it does, but it's an interesting topic.

In my experience, for each person who can tell you of a dramatic, even a miraculous answer to prayer, you'll meet at least three who view it as a complete waste of time. There have been many occasions in my life when remarkable things happened after I prayed for something, but there's not much point in relaying them - my audience would be divided right down the middle: those who need no convincing, and those who may never be convinced.

But I'd like to tell you of one such occasion anyway. My then youngest son was born with a badly deformed left ankle. Unlike Christy Brown, Jonny's left foot was the only part of him that didn't work as it should. However, when he was about a year old we had an appointment at the hospital to make final arrangements for an operation that would dismantle his ankle and reconstruct it. On the previous evening, just before the kids' bedtime, we said family prayers, and my oldest boy piped up, 'Dad, can I pray for Jonny?' - And of course since delegating is one of the few things I'm good at, I gladly agreed.

Nothing happened, at least nothing happened just then, but the next day the surgeon who was over-seeing my son's overall health - Jonny has Downs Syndrome - was confused. He couldn't understand why the half-formed, partly fused bones, still clearly visible on an X-ray pinned to one of those light boxes above his desk, had mysteriously sorted themselves out with no apparent help from anyone. Over twenty years later the only trace of Jonny's difficulties as a baby is that one of his feet is a little bit bigger than the other - same as mine. That's only one of many examples of divine intervention I'm grateful for, but as I said a minute ago, if you're determined not to believe that stuff you'll find a way to explain it away.

I remember having a discussion with the late John Wimber after he had travelled half way across the world in a Boeing 747 full of men and women of faith; they had come to pray for healing for David Watson who was suffering from cancer.

'Are all your payers answered?' I asked the great man, unaware that dear David would soon succumb. And he said 'No' - which struck me as odd. He told me that he kept detailed records of everyone he prayed for, and on average one in two-hundred was miraculously healed. Great if you're one of the lucky 5%, not so clever if you're not.

Now, who am I to take one of such stature as John Wimber to task? But I must. And here's why: The Bible promises rewards for those who pray. For example, the apostle James wrote, 'The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.'

Think about it; what sort of a heartless beast would God be if having promised a result, he simply ignored the cries of his creation? And yet that appears to be what John Wimber was suggesting. It's also what most of us think if we say that God doesn't answer our prayers.

I believe that God always answers prayer, although I'm not saying he always gives us what we want. He answers in one of four ways. He'll either say, 'Yes,' or, 'No,' or, 'Not yet.' And sometimes he'll say, 'You must be joking!'

Either way, every prayer, sincerely and trustingly said, will have a positive result. But it depends on how you define prayer. If you see prayer as means of twisting God's arm so he gives you what you want when you want it, you'd better get used to living with disappointment. If, on the other hand, you see prayer as a process of communication, getting to know God, getting to know how much you are worth to him, learning to enjoy his company, then James was right; ' The earnest prayer of a righteous person. produces wonderful results. '

The value of prayer far transcends getting things done. Through prayer we are absorbed into his very being, and he into ours, and we are at peace with God, ourselves and the world.

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