Taking place between 29 May and 8 June 2025, Thy Kingdom Come is a global ecumenical prayer movement, during which our bishops and members of our senior team will be sharing reflections on prayer. Find today’s reflection from Colin Harbidge, Diocesan Secretary, below.
During this period of prayer encouraged by Thy Kingdom Come, I have found myself coming back to a quote from a book by Philip Yancey called Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? In it he asks the question “Why pray? Because Jesus did.”
The book was recommended to me by my wife many years ago. When she and I first met we quickly realised two things – first our faith played a fundamental role in both our lives, and second that we had very differing views on our understanding of Prayer.
But we liked each other!
So, we worked hard to try and understand the other’s perspective. Over many months we swapped articles, blog posts and books on the subject of prayer, hoping to convince the other to understand our point of view. On some areas we were able to persuade the other, on others we still disagree 12 years later. My wife will still pray for there to be parking space at Lidl, and I still maintain that doing so is borderline heretical! But that process of study, of challenge and loving debate resulted in both of us deepening our discipleship, whilst growing our understanding of and closeness to Christ.
The simple humility inherent in Philip Yancey’s answer continues to resonate with me all these years. I am not theologically equipped to be able to explain prayer or understand how it works. But I continue to do it every day because Jesus did.
