When we fail God

When the church prayed an angel appeared and the chains fell from Peter, led him out past the guards, who were later executed for their failure to retain just one man.

Herod, the man who took Peter captive, who had the guards executed, later fell over dead, worms eating him from the inside out.

People speak all the time about prayer. About how it saved this one, didn’t that one. About how it sustained this church but not that one, healed this woman but not that child. About how it helped this team to win and that team to accept their losses gracefully. About how it earned one a job and yet left millions jobless.

As if God is as capricious as a boss who hasn’t quite decided whether he like the work we do or not.

We speak often of prayer, and what our prayers accomplish, or fail to accomplish.

Yet, we hardly ever mention the times we fail to pray.

And what child isn’t healed because we didn’t pray.

What nation is at war because we failed to pray.

What healing is denied because we didn’t pray.

What despair has taken root because we didn’t pray.

We speak often of how God fails us.

We aren’t so eager to speak of how we fail God.