In the classic movies It’s a Wonderful Life, the lead character, George Bailey, is at the brink of despair. He is stuck in a job he doesn’t want. He cannot provide for his family as he wishes. Suddenly, through no fault of his own, he is about to be thrown in jail.
He looks to friends for help. He begs his enemy for help. He tries to drown his sorrows in a bottle of booze.
Finally, in desperation, he prays. The rest of the movie is Hollywood’s fanciful story of God’s answer to his prayer.
Many people, like George Bailey, do not turn to prayer until all other avenues of help prove fruitless. It’s as if the axiom is true: “When all else fails, try prayer.”
Our Father in heaven urges us always to come to him with our prayers. He gives us this invitation, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).
We will go to others and tell them our troubles, but we forget our privilege of prayer. We can come to our heavenly Father at any time, in any place, and pour out our hearts to him in prayer.
What is best of all is that God also promises to hear us. Look again at what our loving God says, “Ask and it will be given to you . . . you will find . . . the door will be opened.”
What a privilege we have in prayer. It is Jesus who has made prayer possible. Through his death and resurrection Jesus paid for our sins and has established peace between us and God.
If our heavenly Father has taken care of our greatest need, the forgiveness of our sins, he will surely answer our prayers.
Pastor R.
