In response to prominent people saying they were praying for the San Bernardino, CA shooting victims’ families and the survivors, the December 3 headline on the New York Daily News read, “God Isn’t Fixing This.” The article said people offering prayers, “Erred in offering prayers rather than solutions on gun control.” Rather than going down the trail of gun control, I want to go down the other road – that of praying in a time of crisis. Many, including U.S. President Obama (prior to his continuing push for gun control), said, “Our first response is to pray for the injured and for the families who have suffered loss.” When our Lord faced a life or death crisis in His own life, He went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. According to Matthew 26:36-42, Jesus met the crisis head-on (“Sit here while I go over there and pray.”); defined the crisis (“My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.”); evaluated the options (“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.”); came to a firm decision (“My Father . . . Your will be done.”). According to Luke 22:43, He then received strength from God (“An angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.”) Obviously, God does “fix” things. Unfortunately, many wait for a crisis to pray. The truth is you will be much more effective in praying in a time of crisis if you are faithful in praying before the crisis. He prays best in times of crisis who prays consistently in times of no crisis. Crisis is not the best time to restore communication with God. Crisis praying is a spasmodic cry of emergency vs. consistent communication with holy God. If you will walk daily with God, when crisis comes, you will not need to cry loudly. He will hear your sobs, and He will “fix” it, according to His will. So pray on!
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Very much agreed. Crisis praying by itself tends not so much to connect us to the heart of God but more to express our heart's cry to him. While that's a valid - and much-needed - form of prayer, if that's the sum of our prayer lives, then we will never actually connect with God's heart. The end result will be that we are unable to discern his will in crisis, because we have not taken time to get to know him in prayer. This tends to make our crisis prayers less effective.