Of Freedom, Country and Vaccination

[Kammrath]

What is prayer to you?

Well trying to be as brief as possible with an expansive subject:

Prayer is surrender, submission, and seeking of the Creator's will. It is a constant state of being ("pray without ceasing") where a person lets go of their will in order to seek and push for the Creator's will. The epitome of this is seen in the "Lord's Prayer" and in the Garden of Gethsemane before Jesus's crucifixion.

The Lord's Prayer is a series of commands (imperative verbs) to the Creator Father, demanding that his will be done. So it is a passive surrendering of my will, but an active grabbing of the Creator's will. 

Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς· ("our Father who is in the invisible realm") ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομα σου· ("make your name holy") ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου· ("bring your rule") γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημα σου, ("make your will happen") ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς· ("as in the invisible realm also in the visible realm") τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον· ("give to us this day our sustenance that is necessary for the moment") καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν· ("and forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are in debt to us") καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ἀλλὰ ρῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ. ("and do not abandon us in trial, but rescue us from what is unnatural")

The prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane recognizes the selfish will, but then lays it at the altar of the Creator's will.

πάτερ μου, εἰ δυνατόν ἐστιν, παρελθάτω ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο· ("my Father, if it is possible, remove this cup from me") πλὴν οὐχ ὡς ἐγὼ θέλω ἀλλ᾿ ὡς σύ. ("but not as I will, but as you will")

So point being: Prayer is not a genie or a vending-machine where we come to get what we "want." Such a thing has nothing to do with prayer. Prayer is a constant seeking (and demanding) of the Creator's will, which as we see in the case of Jesus, does not lead to immediate healing, comfort, or prosperity, but to the life of the cross, the path of self-sacrifice and death at the hands of our enemies...even as we wait on the Creator for his work of resurrection. The Creator's will is resurrection through death. To pray therefore is to seek resurrection through death. The genie or vending machine imagery wants to bypass death and that is not the Father's will.