Prayer, for many people, seems to be a way of trying to get God to support what they want to happen. This, of course, assumes that we, with our very limited understanding of the bigger picture of life, really do understand what is best – even though experience constantly teaches us we don’t. During the American civil war President Abraham Lincoln met with a group of ministers for a prayer breakfast. At one point one of the ministers said: ‘Mr President, let us pray that God is on our side’. Lincoln, who was not a regular church goer but was nevertheless a man of deep, though unconventional faith, showed far greater insight. ‘No, gentlemen,’ he replied. ‘Let us pray that we are on God’s side.’
Prayer is not a tool by which we get God to do what we want but an invitation to open ourselves to being and doing what God wants.