May 16 2022 Day 343 Hebrews 4:1–6:20

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.



I appreciate this notion. Jesus, having been fully human, experienced all of the joys and sorrows, contentedness and anxiety that I have. Perhaps the context was a different, but he understood. And with his ascension and returning back to God, so does God. Jesus was God’s human envoy to our experience.

With this knowledge what are we to do? The accompanying reflection is from Madeline L’Engle, author of the children’s book, A Wrinkle in Time. She talks about the vast knowledge we have. We know how to make cars, split the atom, make advances in keeping people alive. This is strict knowledge, things we can learn or know.

The challenge is that this knowledge isn’t enough. Once we built cars, split the atom, made medical advances, we have huge problems. Cars become vehicles to kill, either in unintentional accidents or intentional bombs. Split atoms created the horrors at Hiroshima, and threats of nuclear annihilation. Medical care advances have created ethical crises both at conception and end of life. It turns out, knowledge is not enough.

We need wisdom. Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing to not put it in a fruit salad.

Where do we get true wisdom, beyond the question of tomatoes? From genuine connection and prayer with God. As L’Engle wrote, “And the power of prayer is greater than the Pentagon. It is greater than the greed and corruption which can still conceive of a nuclear holocaust as survivable. It is greater than the bomb. It can help bring wisdom to our knowledge, wisdom which is all that will keep us from destroying ourselves with our knowledge.”

This morning, I’m thinking about how genuinely I believe that prayer is greater than greed and corruption. I definitely want to believe prayer is greater than the bomb. I want to believe prayer will prevent our mutual destruction. Closer to home, I want to believe prayer will end life-altering illnesses. And sometimes I feel impotent. I pray, and bad things continue. Does that mean that prayer is ineffective? That I’m not praying hard enough? Most days, I reject that defeatist attitude about prayer. But sometimes, it’s right there.

And yet, I continue to pray. I know of no other antidote to the world’s ills. More importantly, I know of no other way for me to retain any semblance of contentedness. In the midst of all of these bad things, prayer helps me have hope. God will do what God will do, in God’s time. C.S. Lewis wrote, “[Prayer] doesn’t change God. It changes me.”

I think one of my growing edges is to continue to grow in my faith in the power of prayer. Today, I’ll work on that.