We Are The Answer To Prayer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Prayer is a wonderful thing, it truly is a wonderful thing.\u00a0Prayer can change lives, and it can open our hearts\u00a0to the expression of the Divine in the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/2016\/01\/we-are-the-answer-to-prayer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We Are The Answer To Prayer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Prayer is a wonderful thing, it truly is a wonderful thing.\u00a0Prayer can change lives, and it can open our hearts\u00a0to the expression of the Divine in the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/2016\/01\/we-are-the-answer-to-prayer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Naked Jesus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-05T06:25:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John O'Keefe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John O'Keefe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/2016\/01\/we-are-the-answer-to-prayer\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/2016\/01\/we-are-the-answer-to-prayer\/\",\"name\":\"We Are The Answer To Prayer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-05T06:25:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-05T06:25:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/#\/schema\/person\/470b7ef2d4c1360a8e82d7365ed930c3\"},\"description\":\"Prayer is a wonderful thing, it truly is a wonderful thing.\u00a0Prayer can change lives, and it can open our hearts\u00a0to the expression of the Divine in the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/2016\/01\/we-are-the-answer-to-prayer\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/2016\/01\/we-are-the-answer-to-prayer\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/2016\/01\/we-are-the-answer-to-prayer\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"We Are The Answer To Prayer\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/\",\"name\":\"The Naked Jesus\",\"description\":\"A Journey Out of Christianity and Into Christ\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/#\/schema\/person\/470b7ef2d4c1360a8e82d7365ed930c3\",\"name\":\"John O'Keefe\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce2947b9bd8574adba50aa6a102b862c?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce2947b9bd8574adba50aa6a102b862c?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John O'Keefe\"},\"description\":\"John O'Keefe's new book is DISRUPT: Everything Changes will make you think differently about a great deal of what the church teaches. 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{"id":326,"date":"2016-01-05T00:25:11","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T06:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/?p=326"},"modified":"2016-01-05T00:25:11","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T06:25:11","slug":"we-are-the-answer-to-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/2016\/01\/we-are-the-answer-to-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"We Are The Answer To Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"TNJ-NEW-29.fw\"$ <\/a>Prayer is a wonderful thing, it truly is a wonderful thing.\u00a0Prayer can change lives, and it can open our hearts\u00a0to the expression of the Divine in the world. I was once told, \u2018Pray can motivate the heart.\u201d I agree, it can motivate the heart; but if the heart is motivated\u00a0it should be motivated into an action. When we prayer for others we should be listening for the voice of the Divine and hear how we can be doing, helping, moving in the lives of the people we pray for. Prayer does not end our responsibility, it starts it.<\/p>\n

Over my walk in the faith I have heard more and more use the \u201cI\u2019ll pray for you\u201d line as a way of doing nothing. But if we\u2019re truly in prayer, truly connected to the Divine, the Divine will speak to us about what it is we\u2019re suppose to do \u2013 how we\u2019re to get involved in the lives of those in need. Saying, \u201cI\u2019ll pray for you\u201d has become a cheap way of saying, \u201cI don\u2019t have time for this, so I will tell you I\u2019ll pray so you will go away and it won\u2019t cost me anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prayer is a way for us to hear the voice of the Divine and hear how the Divine wants us to move to action. In their respective letters, James and John share with us the idea that we are to be an action people, \u201cIf anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth<\/em>. (1 Jn 3:17-18)\u201d and \u201cSuppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, \u201cGo, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,\u201d but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.<\/em> (James 2:15-17).\u201d You see, we are called to action, and if we see prayer as important, and it is, we should be listening to the Divine and hear how we are called to that action.<\/p>\n

I know so many people who spend\u00a0a great deal of time in\u00a0prayer. When they pray, they do all the talking and never stop to hear the Divine speak to them. If\u00a0the Divine\u00a0desired\u00a0us to spend all of our time in prayer, without action, Jesus would have spent all his time praying for people instead of going out to help them. Jesus did spend time praying, and when he did he usually asked questions \u2013 waiting to hear the Divine\u2019s answer, so He could be part of the solution and not simply one of those people that pray as a badge of courage.<\/p>\n

Did you know that the term \u201cPrayer Warrior\u201d never appears in Scripture.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"