I read in this morning’s newspaper of the sad and untimely death of a pop star. In the article a well-known minister was quoted as having asked his congregation to “pray for her memory.”

“Pray for her memory?” Surely, “pray for those mourning her loss,” since they need comforting, but praying for a person’s memory is useless.

Once a person leaves this world they have no needs of prayer… for their memory or anything else … so we do not pray for the deceased. Was the reverend asking his flock to pray for the public’s memory of this person? ? ?  I can only scratch my head.

This sort of meaningless utterance is in the same category as those who “send thoughts and good wishes” to those in need or who promise to pray for someone and never do. This trivializes prayer.

Prayer is the gift of communication with the God of the universe. Precious as that gift is, we don’t need to ration it, or save it for the rainy days of our lives. God encourages us to pray without stopping. To pray for our concerns and the needs of others, large needs and small.

Prayer is an acknowledgement that everything we have is from God and he is in control. It shouldn’t be a constant barrage of requests, reminders or demands. The scriptural admonition is not to “nag without ceasing”, after all.

To pray is to have a consciousness of God always in our thoughts and to allow the occasional quietness of mind necessary to hear God’s reply.

We must not take this constant access to prayer for granted. When we trivialize prayer we are trivializing God.

So, by all means, pray for your every concern, for yourself and for others.  For the family and loved ones of the singer who died so unexpectedly, for their comfort in this time of loss.  Whenever you say you will pray for someone, do it. And whenever you pray, be aware of the one to whom you pray.

Pray with honor. Pray with respect. Pray knowing that your prayers make a difference.

Amen.