Prayer

Nothing is more misunderstood than prayer. Prayer is not magic. It is not "whiffle dust" that we sprinkle on top of our requests.

There is a sense in which we should not ask the Creator to do things for us that he wants to do through us. In other words, God will not do for us what we can, and should, do for ourselves.

To be sure, usually our past in answering our own prayers is small. But God does not usually do his part until we have done ours.

Someone has calculated that a farmer’s part in growing a crop amounts to only 5% of the energy required to produce a harvest. But God will not produce a crop until the farmer plants the seed. Crops don’t grow by themselves.

So pray hard. But don’t ask your Creator to do for you what you need to do for yourself.