Cornerstone No . 182 , page 16
Andrew ’ s church , Arbroath , this year ’ s church weekend focused on prayer . We all know prayer is vital to our life as Christians and as a congregation but nevertheless it is something many of us struggle with . Over five sessions , Martin helped us look at our communication with God from different angles through reflections , Bible passages , personal stories and discussion . First off , we considered what prayer is . Martin spread a number of cards across the floor with quotes on prayer from many different Christian and non- Christian sources . From Martin Luther there was the assertion that “ To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing ”, and from Søren Kierkegaard , “ Prayer does not change God but it changes him who prays ”. We all selected a quote that meant most to us and shared those with the rest of the group . This led on to why we pray . Martin shared with us personal stories from his parishioners of prayers – big and small – that had been answered . For instance , the woman suffering for a long time from a debilitating illness who prayed that a visit to the doctor would finally bring a diagnosis – and then found her exact symptoms described in a magazine article she happened to read in the doctor ’ s waiting room ! Of course , for every answered prayer there is one to which no answer is received – or at least not the answer we want . So why we pray ? Simply because God wants to hear from us and longs to give to us . And in the words of Kierkegaard , because prayer changes us for the better .