I’ve had some really interesting responses to that last post. I think that prayer is a subject that most of us (if we’re honest) feel uncertain about at times. It’s just the nature of life. We pray for certain things to happen. Sometimes they do. More often than not they don’t. This is simply a fact of life. So what do we do with that fact? It is above everything else a theological problem. We believe in a good God who loves us and wants to give us good things. Yet life often brings us things that are not good and the that causes us to wonder about who God is, what he’s doing and what exactly happens when we pray after all. Few of us would say that our lives are simply one answered prayer after another. Most of us wonder why God’s activity isn’t more obvious.
There are a couple of ways of solving the ‘problem’ I’ve outlined above:
- God isn’t really there, we just ‘wish’ him into existence because we can’t cope with the problems of life, suffering and ultimately death.
- God is using ‘bad things’ (or even mildly annoying things) to teach us some lesson that will make us stronger people. Suffering is all about character-formation.
- God’s involvement in the world is limited for reasons that we don’t fully understand. These reasons could be related to the reality of sin in the world and God’s choice to allow us to reject him and make poor decisions.
These are only a few of the options for explaining how to sort through the mess of our actual experiences and the promise of prayer. The thing is that there are these moments when it all seems to come together. We connect with God at a deep level and get the sense that we have ’seen behind the veil’. We see events happening that we know are the result of God’s intervention. We have the distinct feeling that this is how things are supposed to be, that this is the kind of relationship that God wants with his people.
And then time passes and after a while it feels like our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling and God is no longer all that active in our particular situation. The events of our lives are easily explained by less spectacular means than the hand of God. And we wonder… why can’t God always respond like he did when?…
This has been my experience at any rate. I’m not sure what your experience has been but I doubt that mine is all that unique. How do you understand this whole business?
Is any event in life not spectacular, the birth of a child, a lazy day at home with family, a death of a loved one, building of a home with family and friends for a young family, fighting depression, laughing with friends? Are all these answers to prayer…are all of them natural or simple?
I feel like I am in Bible Theology all over again. I have no wisdom or thoughts to share with you… but wanted to say thanks for writing your thoughts - I needed to know that someone else is thinking the same things as I, but like Rachel I am encouraged to keep digging. PS: Congrats on the “new” family member… I just found out the other day.
I think you are very right in that prayer is definately one of those things that we often feel uncertain about. There have definately been times where I have had prayers totally answered, and I can tell that only God is behind it…and then like 2 days later it’s like, “hey, where’d you go God? Are you still listening?”
I was challenged by my pastor recently to pray much differently than I normally do. To really just put aside what I think I should be praying about, and really just let God teach me how to pray about it. After all, he does know our hearts and what we are concerned with, so it is conceivable that he would probably know how to pray about it…because prayer isn’t just us asking for stuff, at least maybe it shouldn’t be, but it’s also us getting closer to God, understanding Him and His heart, an communing with our creator, savior, an sustainer.
That’s my thoughts so far anyways…I am enjoying this topic: very interesting one indeed.
I’m partly with Clayton on this one. When I look back on my walk with God and recall some of the prayers that I earnestly prayed I feel some what ashamed. They were prayers with good intentions, or desired outcomes, but where was my heart at? I often find that in my frustration with God at to the lack of answered prayer, God slowly speaks to me when I choose to listen. (Unfortunately I don’t choose to listen often enough) I believe prayer is about aligning our heart with the heart of the father. It is not a demand, or a list of things I want but rather a discussion. So when I’m done talking to Him, He replies. Unfortunately or fortunately He seems to be a master communicator and all to often the conversation that I started with a petition or request turn to a dialogue about the state of my heart or the reasons and motivations for my request. Sometimes when I allow my will/desires to get out of the way my soul is able to align with the father an pray “not my will, but Yours be done”
I’m partly with Clayton on this one. When I look back on my walk with God and recall some of the prayers that I earnestly prayed I feel some what ashamed. They were prayers with good intentions, or desired outcomes, but where was my heart at? I often find that in my frustration with God at to the lack of answered prayer, God slowly speaks to me when I choose to listen. (Unfortunately I don’t choose to listen often enough) I believe prayer is about aligning our heart with the heart of the father. It is not a demand, or a list of things I want but rather a discussion. So when I’m done talking to Him, He replies. Unfortunately or fortunately He seems to be a master communicator and all to often the conversation that I started with a petition or request turn to a dialogue about the state of my heart or the reasons and motivations for my request. Sometimes when I allow my will/desires to get out of the way my soul is able to align with the father an pray “not my will, but Yours be done”
I find Jesus’ “not my will, but yours be done” example of prayer to be extremely interesting. It would appear that at this point, Jesus’ will was not in line with the Father’s as his own will desired to avoid the impending suffering. I’m not sure how to deal with this apparent rift in Jesus’ and the Father’s perfect union.
The order of Jesus’ prayer is also interesting. Before conceding “not my will, but yours be done”, he first pleaded, “take this cup from me.” Jesus prayed first for what was truly his heart’s desire. Thus, it doesn’t appear that God asks us to neglect our own wants/desires but rather that we’re always willing to surrender to the fact that he ultimately knows and desires what is best for us.