Do we believe in prayer?

In a small mid-western conservative town, a new tavern started a building to open up their business. The local Baptist church started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers. Work progressed, however right up till the week before opening, when a lightning strike hit the bar and it burned to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, until the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means. The church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the buildings demise in its reply to the court.

As the case made it's way in to court, the judge looked over the paperwork. At the hearing and commented, "I don't know how I'm going to decide this, but as it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner that believes in the power of prayer, and an entire church congregation that doesn't!"

I don't know if this story is true or not but it seems to illustrate a common problem among Christians. We pray and pray and as soon as one prayer is answered we move on to the next request without stopping to thank God for His answer to our prayers. Whether we intend to do so or not, our reaction speaks volumes. It is as if we pray as if we are dependent on God, but once we have our answer we act as if God's intervention was unnecessary to the solution of our problem.