Prayer

Wow. I'm reading Philip Yancey's book "Prayer: Does it really make a difference?" and I have to admit, this book is kicking my butt. Praying has never been a strong discipline for me, so I figured I'd tackle this book since I'd heard so much about it. I highly recommend this book. I'm only part way through and I'm already having to re-view how I see prayer and how I see God in general. I want to give a few lines from the book just to give you a hint:
"A human being is not someone who once in a while makes a mistake and God is not someone who now and then forgives. No, human beings are sinners and God is love".
Another aspect that got me was this in speaking about "Helplessness": "What a stumbling block! ALmost from birth we aspire to self-reliance. Adults celebrate it as a triumph whenever children learn to do something on their own... As adults we like to pay our own way, live in our own houses, make our own decisions, rely on no outside help, we seek out self help books... All the while we are systematically sealing off the heart attitude most desireable to GOd and most descriptive of our true state in the universe - Apart from me you can do nothing - Jesus told his disciples, a plain fact that we conspire to deny".
He goes on to talk about how when he was in 1st grade he hated having his teachers stand behind him and correct him when he was reading. But w/o them he would never have learned to read and never wrote this very book.
Prayer forces us (if it's done w/ the right heart) to drop all of our independance, and depend wholly on God.
TOOOOO long in my life have i been the person that has tried to be independent. I've taught lessons and given advice numerous times about how we need to depend on God. But I've not always been the best person at following through with that. I'm going to work on that (with God's help... after all... I'm depending on Him).

Love God... Love people... Serve the world...
Jpack