Article September 12, 1970 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Raymond E. Judd, Arnold J. Walker

A sermon by The Reverend Raymond E. Judd, Jr. in the Trinity University Chapel San Antonio, Texas

Prayer is not words, although certainly there are words. Prayer is not answers....The purpose of prayer is fellowship with our creating Father—not answers. If prayers are for answers, then we only pray when we want answers, and we are discouraged in the whole life of prayer if we do not receive the answer we desire. If prayer is fellowship with our Father, we pray as we live. Prayer does indeed change things, for it gives a sense of God's presence whether in the midst of the storm or on the mountaintop of joy...

Prayer prods us to action and to work and to life. One cannot stay in the prayer closet. One cannot remain...in prayer retreats. When we study those times in the New Testament when Christ prayed, we discover that he [sometimes] concluded those moments with a phrase such as, "Rise, let us be going!" Life cannot be lived on one's knees! It has to be lived on one's feet. One cannot forever pray; there is a new earth to be built...If prayer takes us away from the world, disengages us from our tasks, then it fulfills no life purpose. If prayer takes us to the very grit of this God-given life, then it has purpose and keeps us running!

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