"Prayer Works For Me"

How often do we hear someone say, "My prayer was answered?" A friend tells me, "God helped me stop drinking." A year later he tries to stop smoking, but this time God apparently is too busy to help. He fails in his effort. A friend told me yesterday, "I had to get my potted plants moved, but I didn't want to bother you to do it. As I stood on my patio, contemplating it, I felt a warm pressure, as of someone holding my hand. A few minutes later, my nephew showed up and he volunterered to move them. God always helps me this way." "I was healed by God." "God saved my life." "God turned my life around." These stories sound very nice and cozy, but in the same instant they are occurring, a soldier is killing another soldier, a father is beating his girlfriend's child to death, a car tire's blowout triggers a chain reaction that kills several people, a person dies horribly from cancer, the kids down the block get their Christmas a week early while the kids on this end have no Christmas to speak of.