Article March 14, 2005 Issue

HAS GOD HEARD MY PRAYER?

By Jim Baker

A FEW YEARS AGO while in Thailand, my wife and I visited a number of Buddhist temples. At each temple there was a large gong. When I asked the guide what this was for, he explained that after each prayer the gong was struck to be sure the prayer had been heard.

This set me thinking about my own approach to prayer. I realized that sometimes I had prayed with the anticipation that God would hear my prayers, but was not always confident He would answer them. At school, I sometimes prayed for better grades. As a parent, I prayed for better family relationships. In my first jobs, I prayed for more satisfying assignments and higher salaries. But I remained unsure about my methods of praying and about their outcome.

The uncertainty persisted. "How do you think your prayers will be answered?" And perhaps most important, "How do you go about praying for better results?"