{"id":2432,"date":"2015-09-15T11:22:57","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T15:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=2432"},"modified":"2015-09-15T11:22:57","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T15:22:57","slug":"prayer-is-a-contact-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/09\/prayer-is-a-contact-sport.html","title":{"rendered":"Prayer is a Contact Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>\u201cI will not let you go unless you bless me!\u201d (Genesis 32:26)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Prayer is\u201cChutzpah.\u201d How audacious, to think that specks of stardust living on a pebble of stardust in a sidetrack galaxy on the backwaters of the Universe can mutter and mumble and grab the attention of the Master Creator! But we can. And he listens, too, and adjusts his plans to accommodate our appeals. Expecting that takes \u201cChutzpah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Gospels are full of audacity: Blind men who yell and won\u2019t be silenced, a woman who grabs Jesus\u2019 prayer tassel, a leper who breaks social protocol, a Gentile woman who won\u2019t take \u2018no\u2019 for an answer. God must love audacious persistence because every one of these desperate people get their happy ending. In Luke 11 and Luke 18 Jesus relays two parables with the same moral: \u201cdesperate, bold, persistent prayers get answers.\u201d \u201cChutzpah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jacob understood this. He had to, to slap a half-Nelson on the Angel of the Lord and hold him hostage for a blessing. It\u2019s a bizarre\u00a0story, but God honored the man\u2019s courage with a name change from Jacob (which means \u201ctrickster\u201d) to Israel which means \u201cwrestles with God and wins.\u201d Imagine that \u2013 God wrestles, if we dare!<\/p>\n<p>So beware of creeping Islam. The word \u201cIslam\u201d means \u201csubmit\u201d and Muslims see themselves as slaves of a slave-owner God. There is no true relationship. The Judeo-Christian tradition fueled by Jacob\u2019s wild encounter sees God as a covenant partner, even a Father who loves us enough to let us wrestle\u2026 if we will dare grab some audacity and engage with him.<\/p>\n<p>Prayer is a contact sport.<\/p>\n<p>Engage with God right now. Dare a bit of \u201cChutzpah.\u201d Risk a little passion, an \u201cI\u2019m going to keep knocking, Sir, and not quit\u201d posture.<\/p>\n<p>Take up one of the pressing needs in your family, relationships, work or business. Maybe you\u2019ve been bringing this to God daily for years. Well and good. Come again, with a little attitude\u2026 wrapped in love, respect and gratitude.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s a father who loves to wrestle! Take him up on it, and he\u2019ll take you down!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI will not let you go unless you bless me!\u201d (Genesis 32:26) Prayer is\u201cChutzpah.\u201d How audacious, to think that specks of stardust living on a pebble of stardust in a sidetrack galaxy on the backwaters of the Universe can mutter and mumble and grab the attention of the Master Creator! But we can. And he&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,7,4,25,3,1],"tags":[702,1364,1367,1366,379,1368,1365],"class_list":["post-2432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-bible-prayer","category-daily-prayer","category-god","category-jesus","category-prayer","category-uncategorized","tag-audacious-prayer","tag-chutzpah","tag-desperate-prayer","tag-jacob","tag-leper","tag-persistent-prayer","tag-wrestling-with-god"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Prayer is a Contact Sport<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/09\/prayer-is-a-contact-sport.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prayer is a Contact Sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cI will not let you go unless you bless me!\u201d (Genesis 32:26) Prayer is\u201cChutzpah.\u201d How audacious, to think that specks of stardust living on a pebble of stardust in a sidetrack galaxy on the backwaters of the Universe can mutter and mumble and grab the attention of the Master Creator! But we can. And he&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/09\/prayer-is-a-contact-sport.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-15T15:22:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark and Jill Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Prayer is a Contact Sport","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/09\/prayer-is-a-contact-sport.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Prayer is a Contact Sport","og_description":"\u201cI will not let you go unless you bless me!\u201d (Genesis 32:26) Prayer is\u201cChutzpah.\u201d How audacious, to think that specks of stardust living on a pebble of stardust in a sidetrack galaxy on the backwaters of the Universe can mutter and mumble and grab the attention of the Master Creator! 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