Prayer is the drop of water-the answer is the tipping bucket

     I've always been fond of this analogy about prayer:

     We should think of prayers as drops of water.

And we should think of the thing we are praying about as a bucket that needs to be filled up to a tipping point.


     We don't know how large of a drop our prayers are and we don't know how much water it takes for the bucket to tip.  And so there may be a million folks praying causing drops to pour into the bucket, yet the bucket may be ENORMOUS.  Other times we may experience the immediate answer to prayer right when we pray (Large drop?  Small bucket?  Both?  We don't know.)

     Sometimes it feels as if our prayers are useless.  Like maybe we are putting the same thing out there over and over all to see no tipping point.  Are they useless?  How do we know that our prayer isn't going to be the final drop that tips the bucket?  How do we know that our prayers haven't filled a part of the bucket early on, seemingly going unanswered, only to see the tip occur much later?

     So prayer is measured in its effectiveness not in answers and outcomes but in the act of doing it.  It's the faith in knowing that you may not get your answer but you are filling the bucket the best you can by taking your concerns to God.  In this light, prayer is never a waste....

     (Personally I think little kid prayers are HUGE drops....)