Prayers are like fishing nets...

The state of Hawaii recently mandated bigger holes in the fishing nets used in pacific waters. The law was supposed to help small fish grow into larger ones. This is good news if you're a fish, at least if you are a relatively small fish. Our prayer life can be likened to those fishing nets.

Some of our prayer nets have large holes due to the infrequency of our prayers. They need adjustment and a tightening to the overall pattern. Other people have holes torn by life's difficulties or worse, by sin.

Most of us pray, yet the Bible teaches that we "have not, because we ask not" (James 4:2). A haphazard prayer life is like a loosely woven fishing net. Nets like this let all but the largest fish escape. But worse than this is when we sometimes refuse to pray. Refusal usually follows anger toward God or feelings of guilt over our sin. When we stop praying althogether, it is as if we are working with torn nets, which let all the fish escape.


(Excerpt from Prayer: Dare to Ask by Ralph Moore)