Some thoughts on prayer… Suppose your children believed that you never did anything differently because they asked you. i.e. you will give them money on Friday evening regardless of whether they ask you for it or not. But they also believe that you require them to go through the motion or ritual of asking. And so they do it. On Friday evening they approach you and ask you to give them some weekend money. They do it even though they believe that you will or will not give it to them regardless of what they do, and that you know they believe this.
Now this is actually how many people pray to God…with no expectation that their requests actually make a difference to God. The approach Him as a cosmic “fix it” or cosmic “butler.” He is a personality…He thinks, He wills, He expresses emotion, He loves, etc and we are formed in His image. We are image bearers…what a privilege!
Can we change God…or a better question: Do our requests really make a difference in what God does or does not do?
These questions haunt most people and are a fundamental cause of prayerlessness. Can God be prevailed upon by those who faithfully stand before Him? Boy, I sure hope so. Check out these Scriptures.
Exodus 32:10-14; Exodus 33:1-17; 2 Kings 20:1-6. In these Scriptures we see the power of the request in praying. God loves us as a Father. The thing that honors God tremendously is children who fundamentally believe that God is good all the time (even when He says no) and dare to ask of him or make requests of Him based upon this belief of His rule and goodness. They are the children who actually believe God can be prevailed upon. This is not arrogance or false optimism this is the unique relationship between created personalities and the Creator…it is a personal relationship.
Requests may be granted or they may not. This is actually good news for us because He only does what is best for His children. C.S. Lewis writes, “God has retained a discretionary power of granting or refusing it (our request). Except on that condition prayer would destroy us. It is not unreasonable for a headmaster to say, “Such and such things you may do according to the fixed rules of this school. But such and such other things are too dangerous to be left to general rules. If you want to do them you must come and make a request and talk over the whole matter in my study. And then we’ll see.” The truth is, we do not know enough, and our desires are not perfect enough for us to be given everything we want and ask for.
Jesus longs for us to seek Him and gives us the option or free will choice to continue seeking, knocking and asking in spite of the answer NO. I encourage you today to study the above Scriptures and keep going to the Living Water and the Bread of Life. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking! Don’t treat prayer like plunking money into a soft drink machine…you do a simple one time act, and then the mechanism takes over to produce the inevitable result. Prayer is never a mechanism…it is always a personal negotiation.
Peace, Bryan
