Prayer, the way to sufficiency
Dr. Roberto Miranda
SUMMARY: Effective prayer is born from a recognition of our essential helplessness and dependence on God. The Psalms of Ascent express this overwhelming awareness and gratitude for God's intervention in our lives. Authentic prayer requires acknowledging our lack of wisdom, strength, and resources and turning to God in expectation of his merciful response.
Powerful and effective prayer is born from that great abyss that opens within us when we consider our essential helplessness. It is a healthy recognition that, as the title of the famous novel by the Peruvian writer Ciro Alegría suggests, "the world is wide and alien." The world is populated with hostile forces. It is much more mysterious, unfathomable and complex than we can process with our limited capacity. Abandoned to our own resources, without the powerful arms of our heavenly Father to defend us and lift us out of the hole, we are like helpless children in a jungle populated by wild beasts.
That is the feeling of humility and total dependence manifested in Psalms 120 to 134, known as "Gradual Songs" or "Songs of the ascents." Psalm 124, in particular, expresses that overwhelming awareness on the part of the writer that were it not for Jehovah's merciful intervention, he would easily have succumbed to the merciless attacks of the enemy:
That is the feeling of humility and total dependence manifested in Psalms 120 to 134, known as "Gradual Songs" or "Songs of the ascents." Psalm 124, in particular, expresses that overwhelming awareness on the part of the writer that were it not for Jehovah's merciful intervention, he would easily have succumbed to the merciless attacks of the enemy:
