|
Pray for Faith
These past months, as Faith has sought to discern what God has in store for us in the coming years, I have asked for your prayers. I am concerned, however, that in our culture, "I'll pray for you" has become a figure of speech. To say, "I'll pray for you" means that 'I care'. To care is a good first step -- the second step is to actually pray!
The following, from A Treasury of Jewish Folklore: Stories, Traditions, Legends, Humor, Wisdom and Folks Songs of the Jewish People (1948), speaks of prayer in a unique way:
Once there was a rabbi who was at the point of death, so the Jewish community proclaimed a day of fasting in the town in order to induce the Heavenly Judge to commute the sentence of death.
On that very day, when the entire congregation was gathered in the synagogue for penance and prayer, the town drunkard went to the village tavern for some schnapps. When another Jew saw him do this, he rebuked him, saying, "Don't you know this is a fast-day and you're not allowed to drink? Why, everybody's at the synagogue praying for the rabbi!"
So the drunkard went to the synagogue and prayed, "Dear God! Please restore our rabbit to good health so I can have my schnapps!"
The rabbi recovered, and it was considered a miracle. He explained it in the following way: "May God preserve our village drunkard until he is a hundred and twenty years! Know that his prayer was heard by God when yours were not. He put his whole heart and soul into his prayer."
In faith,
Pastor Tim
|
