Probably one of the most singularly confusing Christian discipline is prayer. This is an issue that Christians have wrestled with and struggled with throughout time. I know it has been question for me. When it comes to prayer, we ask: why pray? Does it do any good? Does it really matter?
One thing we do know is that prayer is central to the Christian life. Not only was it a discipline that was central to the lives of the heroes of the Bible like Moses, David, Daniel, and Jesus, but it something that the Bible commands that we do (see 1st Thessalonians 5:17 and James 5:13, 16). But what is it? How does it work?
Truth be told, prayer is far too big a subject to tackle all at once. Throughout the next year, I will probably come back to prayer every now and then and touch on it. For this particular post, I am going to focus on one particular aspect of prayer: intercessory and petitionary prayer, which is a fancy way of saying praying to ask stuff.
This kind of prayer is probably the most confusing. Often Christians use it to essentially turn Yahveh into some sort of divine Santa. But is he not much more than that? What if we are asking for the wrong thing? We say that in the end, we ought to pray "your will be done," but do we really mean that? What if Yahveh's will is different than mine? Does that defeat the point of asking for things? Should we ask for stuff from Yahveh? But then what if he does not grant my request? Does that mean that such a prayer is useless? If Yahveh does what he was going to do anyway, why bother praying? Is pray some sort of guessing game where we hope that what we want is in line with what Yahveh wants? And round and round our minds run when it comes to petitionary prayer.
A friend of mine recently proposed a theory on prayer that she has been thinking of. She calls prayer a "weapon in the hands of Yahveh." Here is how she explained it (if I am wrong in this explanation, she will surely let us all know): Yahveh has intentionally limited himself by allowing his created beings (that would include us humans) the power of choice. We can chose to follow him or we can chose to do our own thing.
Now because we have sinned and have, in fact, chosen another way, Yahveh cannot and will not act without our consent. This is why petitionary prayer is so crucial. If Yahveh crosses that line and intervenes without any of our permission, Satan cries foul, and justifiably so. Even if what Yahveh would do is what we would consider good, by his very nature he cannot interfere without our requesting it.
This should not be taken to deny the sovereignty of Yahveh. It is by his own choice that he has allowed us free choice and it is his choice to allow us sovereignty over ourselves. And as long as we claim to have sovereignty over ourselves, Yahveh will respect that and not interfere with our lives. The flipside of this is that we are now responsible for everything that happens, good or bad, in our lives. As we all know, sooner or later we find ourselves in a situation that is way over our heads.
It is usually at this point that we pray. Now my friend's contention is that prayer is freeing Yahveh to do what Yahveh does best: come in and fix the problem. True prayer, the kind that Jesus prayed, is suspending our own sovereignty (ideally getting rid of it entirely) and hand over control to Yahveh. This is what she means by prayer is a weapon in the hands of Yahveh. Prayer is what gives him the freedom and permission to act.
Before I continue, I should like to point out that I believe she is spot on, even more than she may realize. As she said, the implications of this are immense and she is not quite done sorting through them all. Indeed, you could probably write a book on this. Come to think of it, I am pretty sure books have been written on this. But, as usual, I digress.
When we pray, we grant Yahveh sovereignty at least over the situation (it would be better just to grant him sovereignty over your life, but if you have not done this, we will go in baby steps). Therefore Yahveh is going to do what he (not you) believes is best. This is a very frightening thought because what Yahveh believes to be best may not be (probably is not) what I want.
My friend maintains that Yahveh's will never involves anything "bad" for us; i.e. he will only do good things when he gets involved. To a point she is certainly correct. Yahveh has no desire for bad things to happen to us. But I would disagree to an extent that what we consider good and bad may not always be what Yahveh considers good and bad. This difference of opinion (it should be stressed that this merely opinion) has more to do with a disagreement over what constitutes Yahveh's will rather than prayer itself, which is another post (one that will hopefully be put up shortly). However, I will work with it as much as it relates to prayer thusly.
In Acts 12, there are two stories regarding two of Christ's disciples: James the brother of John and Peter. Really it is one story with two parts. Part one is a quick blurb that informs us that James is arrested by Herod and then has his head forcibly removed. Part two is a longer tale of how Peter was also arrested and then miraculously rescued.
Both were arrested. Assumedly both had people praying that they would be rescued. One was, the other was not. The immediate question we ask is of course why? How do we reconcile a god of love with one that saves one man in response to prayer but not another in the same situation? Can we?
To look at this issue, let us consider two of Christ's prayers. The first one happened in the Garden of Gethsemane, recorded in Matthew 26:36-46. This is just before Jesus is captured, tried, and then crucified and he is in the Garden with his disciples praying to his Father. Jesus knows exactly what is about to happen and does not want to go through with it. He wants out, which is hardly surprising. I mean, who wouldn't?
Though in this prayer, he is begging the Father to find an escape clause, he ends it with "not my will, but yours be done." In that, he surrenders his will to the Father's. Whether he likes it or not, it is the Father's will or plan for Christ to suffer and die. Hardly what either of them desired, but that was the plan. In truth, there was no other way for them to accomplish the intended goal.
The other prayer is the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:9, 10 (actually the prayer is much longer than that, but these are the relevant verses). The second thing that Jesus prays for is to ask for the Father's will to be done. What does this mean, "your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven?"
We look at Jesus' example in Gethsemane. The Father's "will" for Christ was to die for man. In other words, the Father's will for Christ was his role in the plan of salvation. Whatever role we have in the plan of salvation, then that is his will for us.
It is this that we are asking for when we pray. We are asking that Yahveh do what he believes (and he is always right) to best, whatever that may be. It may be and likely is different than what we have in mind, but that is what we are asking for. The question is do we trust him?
So prayer is not some ritual you do to get your way. It is not just asking Yahveh to give us something like he is the mall Santa. It is not putting your coin in the gumball machine. Neither is it a pointless thing we do that makes no difference.
Prayer is giving Yahveh permission to be who he is. It truly is a weapon in his hands because it frees his hands to work. It lets his plan be worked out in your life and others. It opens our perspective to his and shows us where to go.
The question is do you trust him? Is Jesus truly your lord? Do you mean it when you say "your will be done?" Are you prepared for Yahveh to act?
