When All Else Fails - Pray

As a child I did not quite understand when I heard older people say, "when all else fails, pray." Now it is perfectly clear to me. I can now personally relate to the statement. People that live their lives based on the teachings of an entity such as God voluntarily surrender control of their lives to the entity. They stop trying to make life changing decisions without first praying to their God.

For some people, learning to surrender control of their lives takes many small steps and enlightenment through experiences they encounter. Its understandable. It is not easy to give control of your life to a person you've never seen, never heard and never knowingly made contact with. Those people surrender their lives to their God through faith and trust. This is based on what they learned in a book called the Bible. It tells them all about God and how to live in unison with him. The people trust their God will do all the things He says he will in the Bible.

Have you ever tried to accomplish a task or get a specific job? No matter what you did to complete the task or get the job, your efforts were futile. There was failure upon failure. You know the task was attainable but not for you. Then one day you thought to say, "God I need your help." Sometimes immediately or soon thereafter you experienced completion and success with the task or acquired the job.

The success was considered "divine intervention" because the individual requested God's help. God made it possible for the person to accomplish their goal because they asked for his help. This is not to say God will always intervene and make all our desires come into being. He is not a magician. He does not work that way. There are conditions under which God interacts with those that wish to live their lives through Him.

God has a purpose and reason for everyone and everything on Earth. Everything is part of a plan He made long before the Earth was made. When the time is right, He makes things happen. When it does happen , it is called "God's will." In that light, if we ask His help and things do not work out the way we want them to, then we say it was not God's will that things turned out this way. Or God is not ready to permit this thing to happen in your life at this time. That is also where people get upset and angry with God. They feel He is punishing them. In reality He is not. Some people, out of anger try to make their plans a reality without God's help. In most cases they end up in failure..

When a person's requests do not occur the way they want them to, it is not because God did not hear them. It could be one of several reasons it did not happen. God sometimes says no for that moment in time. He knows although you asked for His help, you are not ready to receive it.

Sometimes God says no because He has something better in store for you. The no from God must be received in light of "God knows best." He will reveal the reason for His "no" at a time we are ready to receive it.

Some people may think from this explanation that God is a controlling entity who makes decisions for His people. That is not true. A relationship with God comes with full explanation of how He works. He gives us the ability to follow His advise or not to follow them. The end result is our decision. He however, knows what the outcome will be. He will allow us to make our own decisions and act on them. If we succeed, it was part of the plan He wrote for us long before we were conceived in our mothers. If the activity fails, it was not a punishment from God. The task was not part of His plan for us.

Have you ever felt within your person a type of sadness that borders on depression? Sometimes it was indeed depression. It seemed as if the world was passing you by and no one seemed to notice you were alive? The feeling of anxiousness and despair seemed to consume you even to the core of your person.

When you were feeling those overwhelming feelings of sadness and loss, were you trying to handle it all on your own? Were you too weak to think beyond the immediate intensity of the depression and loneliness? Were you trying to handle it all by yourself?

God knows his people experience theses negative feelings and experiences. He wants to help each of His people but He is not an intrusive God. He will not come to the rescue and change the person's circumstances unless He is invited into the individual's life. People that have a relationship with Him know they have a source or connection that protects them from depression and the negative emotions.

Why don't these people experience the negative emotions? In fact they do, but they know how to handle those negatives. They pray and ask God to show them how to be free from the negatives. They believe God will show them a way through the negativity. As a result, they act on their beliefs and faith in God that things will turn around for the good.

These individuals who believe in God willingly give control to God and let Him work them through the process of getting rid of the negatives they encounter. That is how they deal with life and its challenges. They don't ignore the problems or feelings of helplessness, They allow God to work through them and resolve the problems.

That could account for the reason people say people of faith have bubbly attitudes. They are happy to know they do not have to handle their problems all alone. They know God understands them and what is going on with them. They trust Him to take care of them.

The medical professional diagnosis people and often find deadly growths within their bodies. The patient is informed of the serious illness. The medical professional does not believe the person will live beyond a certain length of time.

The person of faith that receives such devastating information often responds with a statement similar to, God will see me through this." The medical professional is often baffled and feels the person is in denial regarding their health. The person of faith on the other hand refuses buy into the gloom of pending death. Instead, the individual contacts a few believing friends and they pray for God's intervention and healing.

They pray for the person and they believe all they are praying for. They trust God to spare the person. The individual returns to the medical professional for treatment. The medical professionals see no signs of the illness. The person is completely healed. There are no signs that the illness existed. The medical professional try to use scientific explanations for the individual's recover.

People of faith know differently. They know God could have had other plans for the person that did not include death at this time.  But if God had decided it was time for the individual to die, the person of faith would still have joy in there person. They know they will soon be with the God they lived their lives for.