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I know this little meditation on Father Abraham isn't particularly polished nor profound, but as I was contemplating this meditation, I realized it is my personal, spiritual equivalent of Descartes' famous Cogito Ergo Sum. In my case the realization is best stated: "I pray, therefore I am."

I know that outside forces are quite capable of taking away everything that I associate with being a "righteous" Christian: church meetings, the Bible, Christian literature, and even Christian fellowship itself. But there is one thing no force on this earth is capable of removing from me: my ability to communicate with God through prayer.

Of course prayer, in and of itself, is nothing, unless you take into consideration who you are praying to!

I met a beautiful Indian pastor this past weekend who had a literal "Damascus Road" type conversion experience. He grew up in a Hindu family, but was extremely confused by the number and variety of gods in Hinduism. This actually caused him a great deal of stress, and so he finally prayed in desperation for the real God to make himself known! None of the Hindu gods answered, but instead he literally saw Jesus Christ standing before him, proclaiming to be the answer to his prayer!

The pastor renounced his belief in Hinduism, and declared to his family what happened to him, and how he was now going to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and Him alone. Of course his family immediately disowned him, and he was left to struggle on his own, with absolutely no support from the Hindu community.

Now, he is a pastor who oversees eleven churches, and regularly sees miracles as a normal part of ministry, including one man who was literally raised from the dead! That one resurrection did more to preach the gospel of Jesus to a Hindu village more so than 1,000 sermons, and the entire village converted en masse to Christianity.

So I have to confess to knowing at least one man who lost literally EVERYTHING to follow after Jesus; all he had left in life was his relationship with the TRUE GOD; and it was all he needed.

betty boop brought up a good point: "In following the Lord's will, we become the person He intended for us to be." So true. In order for us to truly know who we are, we must first know who it is that created us, and what he wants from us. It is a paradox, but it is very, very true that we do not really know ourselves until we know God, and agree to walk out His will for our lives. Then--and only then--do we truly know who we are!

Well, Rene Descartes was correct to state that because a man has self-awareness, then he must exist. However, to know who you are and why you exist, then you need to have God-awareness. Rational thought certainly plays a role in our search, but it's not an end in itself, nor could it possibly be.

Since arriving at the realization that our desire to reach out to God through prayer is the essential action of our existence, I have new sense of urgency regarding my own personal prayer life, and a new appreciation for the need for corporate prayer.

A sad but true issue with my own church is an almost complete lack of any sort of prayer meeting. Yes, there is the traditional Sunday morning worship service, but for reasons beyond my understanding, they don't feel it important to have any sort of gathering for the simple purpose of praying together. I'm beginning to see what a terrible thing that is, and have begun working on some possible way for a simple weekly prayer meeting to be organized.

I've responded to the lack of corporate prayer in the past by forming my own prayer meetings with anyone who was interested. However, these were not an official "church" ministry, but just something I did for my own conscience. But now I think it's time to gently prod our church leadership into action regarding prayer. It's simply too important an activity to ignore.