“The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.” James 5:15-16

“It’s at the end of ourselves that new futures open up. Our plans fall apart. Our strength isn’t enough. Our cleverness fails us. Now what? That’s universal. You cry out like that and you’re joining a long line of souls from across the ages. I’d heard people ask questions about prayer. Does God hear our prayers? Does prayer work? What if you pray and you don’t get an answer? I never found those questions that interesting. It felt like they turned the great mystery into a vending machine. Say or do or believe or ask for the right thing and then you’ll get what you want. Or you won’t. That sort of thing. But that Now what? prayer, that prayer changed me. There was a world of confusion and longing and frustration trapped in my chest and that Now what? prayer dragged it all out in the open. It gave language to that black hole of despair. I was angry that the one thing that had ever really made me feel like I had something unique to contribute was being taken away from me and there was nothing I could do about it. That prayer gave all that rage and grief and loss words. Day after day in that hospital bed, wondering what I was going to do with my life. Repeating those two words (now what?).” (Bell, Rob. Everything is Spiritual . St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.)

Now what? Have you ever said that to yourself? I have. I have reached points in my life where I felt as if there was no more path, no new direction, no new opportunities for myself. I remember lying at home after I had hurt my back playing soccer with some kids at the daycare where I was working as a gym teacher and thinking to myself “Now what?” I knew continuing to work with kids as a gym teacher was not something my body would allow me to do too much longer. So my pondering became a prayer to G-d, “Now what G-d?”

That is a good prayer to pray when our options seem to be limited, “Now what do you want me to do G-d?” That prayer for me turned my path back to following my calling to be a pastor. The church should always be praying the “Now What?” prayer when looking to improve or increase their ministries. If we do believe that prayer is powerful and effective, then all actions by the church and the people should begin with prayer. When we allow prayer to be our guide, then our ministries will also be powerful and effective.

Pastor Dave