When we pray...

It seems like we have a lot of weird ideas about praying. For instance, we are usually only thankful or say our prayer was ‘answered’ when the outcome was what we thought was ‘best’. If we are praying for something and it happens our response is ‘Thank you, Lord!’ and we tell all our friends ‘God answered our prayers!’

It's usually a lot different when what we are praying for doesn’t happen. Does anyone see a problem here? If we truly believe that God hears our prayers, then we must go a step further and believe that he answers them... not just some of them... ALL of them. Sometimes the answer is a joyful, resounding ‘Yes‘! At other times the answer may be ‘No’ or what seems to be ‘No’ may mean ‘Not right now’. It’s easy to be thankful when the answer is ‘Yes’, but I have a lot to learn when ‘Yes’ is not the answer.

Sometimes I get my mind so set in a certain direction, believing and wanting something so badly, that I can’t even see anything else. Maybe this ‘thing’ isn’t what’s best for me... surely God really knows what’s best. This is a lot easier to acknowledge when we are praying for things like a job or something else we need, but it gets pretty tough when we are praying for things like a relationship to be restored or healing for someone we love. If it’s a thing we’re praying for, we can much more easily say ‘All right... that must not be what God wants for me... He must have something better’... but when we’re praying for people, it’s a lot harder to say ‘all right... God may not want that... maybe his plan is better.’

If he is truly sovereign, as I believe he is, and he can ‘intervene’ in our lives at any time and any place, it is a huge thing to trust him when he doesn’t. It’s hard not to ask why... as a matter of fact, I think it’s downright inhuman. But beyond all the whys and the pain and sorrow that go along with some of these ‘unanswered’ prayers... another question begs to be asked. Do we trust him? Will we still worship and follow this God, when at times we cannot possibly understand him? Will our faith shrivel up and die, or will we press harder into him and count on him to carry us through? Will we jump ship and give up, setting ourselves in a place far above him when we think ‘there cannot possibly be a God who would allow this to happen’ or can we surrender all our being to him and admit that we are not God?

Another weird idea I think we have about prayer is that the answers are somehow based upon our performance. This one would almost be funny, if it weren’t so true. It’s strange how easy it is for my mind to begin to believe that I ‘earned’ or ‘deserve’ something because of my ‘good behavior’. I know this is not the way it works, but something in me continually wants to go to this prideful, arrogant place. If we’re going to believe or act like this is the way it works, what does that say when prayers don’t get answered or bad things do happen? I’m not talking about when we do right and things naturally go better, or when we’ve worked hard for something and it happens, or even about when we make bad choices and suffer the obvious consequences that go along with them. We all know how that works, but aside from that (and even in it) there are times when bad things do happen, and all the praying and ‘right living’ don’t seem to make one bit of difference. What then?

People in the Bible were always trying to figure out or explain things and we carry on the tradition very well. Job’s friends were all certain that some sin he had committed brought on all the calamity in his life and continually urged him to confess his sin as he sat there perplexed and confused... knowing that his conscious was clear and deeply hurt by his friends thinking. In John 9:1-3 Jesus’ own disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Now that’s pretty profound. Maybe it would do us all good to reexamine our ideas, quit trying so hard to figure it all out, and well... let God be God. And when we pray... Lord help us to accept your answers.

I love these verses from Isaiah 55... they kind of cover it all.

6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.