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A ponderance on prayer.
Aug. 6th, 2005 10:20 pmIt always makes me terribly sad to hear of people who have stopped believing in God because they didn't have prayers answered. As often as not, it happens when young, but it happens at later ages too. Either way, I find it terribly sad that there is never anyone around who can explain it to people. Prayer is not like making a wish to a genie. An answer of "no" is still an answer.
The more I read of past christians who have had a much closer relationship with God and God's word, the more I think I understand prayer. Prayer is talking to God. It is getting closer to him, and more importantly, asking that his will be done. As someone very smart said, God has this interesting habit of wanting us to ask him to do what he wants to do in the first place. Seeing as how he is perfect and all, it makes sense that what we want isn't always the best possible thing to get, and whatever he wants that is best for us is not always what we are going to want. As Watchman Nee has said (and I paraphrase as best I can), the reason why so many of us seem to receive silence when we pray, is not because God does not exist, does not care, or is not listening, but is because what we ask for is not something we should be asking for. Granted, in some cases we are just to be persistent in our prayers, but only if it is a right thing to ask for in the first place.
Thinking in this way, prayer becomes something quite different than what we normally think of. My experience with prayer, and with those who pray in general, is that we tend to often do it when we need help, or want something desperately, but not much otherwise. However, the more I delve, the more I discover how very...shallow this is. To be sure, God wants to help us and very much wants to bless our lives, though his definition of help and blessing can be quite different than what we want or expect. The way in which we we pray often results in nothing because he says no, and with good cause, though we so rarely see it. The point of prayer is to get right with God, as it were--meaning, line up with Him and what he wants. One finds from experience that as one begins to pray more to be in line with God's will, one becomes much less able to pray in the same way. So many things start revealing themselves to be selfish and knowing that, how can one continue to pray for it? Especially knowing that God doesn't often answer prayers for the selfish things, and on the few times he does say yes, the result is never quite as good as it should have been.
As I mentioned, it makes me rather sad when people and children pray so desperately for something, only to reject God they do not receive it. God said to ask and we would receive, but that was on the condition that we remain in Him and He in us. If one looks at it from the point of a parent, no matter how much a child asks to be given a pretty bottle of poison, or something rusty and jagged to play with, no decent parent is likely to give in to such a request, no matter how much the child wants it. We know it is silly when children get angry for not getting something bad for them and so should we consider it silly when people likewise get angry or dismissive of God for doing the same.
The more I read of past christians who have had a much closer relationship with God and God's word, the more I think I understand prayer. Prayer is talking to God. It is getting closer to him, and more importantly, asking that his will be done. As someone very smart said, God has this interesting habit of wanting us to ask him to do what he wants to do in the first place. Seeing as how he is perfect and all, it makes sense that what we want isn't always the best possible thing to get, and whatever he wants that is best for us is not always what we are going to want. As Watchman Nee has said (and I paraphrase as best I can), the reason why so many of us seem to receive silence when we pray, is not because God does not exist, does not care, or is not listening, but is because what we ask for is not something we should be asking for. Granted, in some cases we are just to be persistent in our prayers, but only if it is a right thing to ask for in the first place.
Thinking in this way, prayer becomes something quite different than what we normally think of. My experience with prayer, and with those who pray in general, is that we tend to often do it when we need help, or want something desperately, but not much otherwise. However, the more I delve, the more I discover how very...shallow this is. To be sure, God wants to help us and very much wants to bless our lives, though his definition of help and blessing can be quite different than what we want or expect. The way in which we we pray often results in nothing because he says no, and with good cause, though we so rarely see it. The point of prayer is to get right with God, as it were--meaning, line up with Him and what he wants. One finds from experience that as one begins to pray more to be in line with God's will, one becomes much less able to pray in the same way. So many things start revealing themselves to be selfish and knowing that, how can one continue to pray for it? Especially knowing that God doesn't often answer prayers for the selfish things, and on the few times he does say yes, the result is never quite as good as it should have been.
As I mentioned, it makes me rather sad when people and children pray so desperately for something, only to reject God they do not receive it. God said to ask and we would receive, but that was on the condition that we remain in Him and He in us. If one looks at it from the point of a parent, no matter how much a child asks to be given a pretty bottle of poison, or something rusty and jagged to play with, no decent parent is likely to give in to such a request, no matter how much the child wants it. We know it is silly when children get angry for not getting something bad for them and so should we consider it silly when people likewise get angry or dismissive of God for doing the same.
