On Prayer
I've stopped being able to believe in prayer, and therefore being able to pray. I said this in an ealier post, but I have concluded, in face of the overwhelming evidence, that God will do what God will do, regardless of whether we want and ask for something different or the very thing He ends up doing.
Yesterday I realized that a lack of belief in prayer stems from a lack of trust in God, and today I'm going to add that a lack of trust in God stems from the decision either that God is not all-powerful and therefore cannot always help us, or that He is, but He doesn't always care enough to keep us from harm.
How do we reconcile the fact that this world has natural consequences that God generally allows to play out with the possibility that God answers prayer? People die, I have finally concluded, because that's the way it is; further, more often than not I think people die because of things that humankind has done, from so-called "original sin" right down to polluting the environment by driving. So God answering prayer - particularly in a way that seems pretty random and haphazard, given how many people pray and how many of those prayers are "not answered" - is not something I understand. In fact, I don't know if I even really believe in it. More and more I've started wondering whether maybe God will do what He will do, regardless of whether or not we pray, and the prayers we do offer are, at their core, simply submission to that will... although "submission" implies a giving over of our choice, and actually I don't think we do have a choice... in which case it's more like acknowledging to God that we know that God does what God wants... which seems a little pointless. or fearful. or both.
"God always answers prayer, just not always in the way(s) we want or expect."
"Consider the sparrow..."
"God's thoughts are not our thoughts."
"our perspective is very limited."
Pat answers are not only not good enough, they have begun to make me angry...
"nothing happens that is outside of God's will."
...this last one is an interesting one, because it naturally assumes a causal relationship: God willed this bad thing to happen; or at the very least, God knew it was happening and allowed it. I tend to think God's will is a little broader than that, in that He has allowed our world to function in a state of Sin... Sin's existence is His will, because it's the other side of the free will coin... so then God allows Sin to exist, and it's Sin that causes shit to happen to "good" people. So it's not a direct causal thing, but it's the consequences of our living in a state and a world of Sin, which in turn God has allowed.
Finally, it occurred to me last night that Christians always slap one another's wrists when we take verses our of context, but then we do it All The Time when we are talking about God's promises. A prime example (the one that made me think about this) is Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for your good and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future!" It's an amazing verse, and I love it, but I realized that God is specifically saying that to Israel before He rescues them (for the umpteenth time). It's a promise to them to save them from their enemies, a reiteration of His promise to them as a people, and finally also a promise to send Jesus, but it's probably misguided to then stretch that further to have it be a promise to us from God for all kinds of situations where it might make us feel better.
...
Yesterday I realized that a lack of belief in prayer stems from a lack of trust in God, and today I'm going to add that a lack of trust in God stems from the decision either that God is not all-powerful and therefore cannot always help us, or that He is, but He doesn't always care enough to keep us from harm.
How do we reconcile the fact that this world has natural consequences that God generally allows to play out with the possibility that God answers prayer? People die, I have finally concluded, because that's the way it is; further, more often than not I think people die because of things that humankind has done, from so-called "original sin" right down to polluting the environment by driving. So God answering prayer - particularly in a way that seems pretty random and haphazard, given how many people pray and how many of those prayers are "not answered" - is not something I understand. In fact, I don't know if I even really believe in it. More and more I've started wondering whether maybe God will do what He will do, regardless of whether or not we pray, and the prayers we do offer are, at their core, simply submission to that will... although "submission" implies a giving over of our choice, and actually I don't think we do have a choice... in which case it's more like acknowledging to God that we know that God does what God wants... which seems a little pointless. or fearful. or both.
"God always answers prayer, just not always in the way(s) we want or expect."
"Consider the sparrow..."
"God's thoughts are not our thoughts."
"our perspective is very limited."
Pat answers are not only not good enough, they have begun to make me angry...
"nothing happens that is outside of God's will."
...this last one is an interesting one, because it naturally assumes a causal relationship: God willed this bad thing to happen; or at the very least, God knew it was happening and allowed it. I tend to think God's will is a little broader than that, in that He has allowed our world to function in a state of Sin... Sin's existence is His will, because it's the other side of the free will coin... so then God allows Sin to exist, and it's Sin that causes shit to happen to "good" people. So it's not a direct causal thing, but it's the consequences of our living in a state and a world of Sin, which in turn God has allowed.
Finally, it occurred to me last night that Christians always slap one another's wrists when we take verses our of context, but then we do it All The Time when we are talking about God's promises. A prime example (the one that made me think about this) is Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for your good and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future!" It's an amazing verse, and I love it, but I realized that God is specifically saying that to Israel before He rescues them (for the umpteenth time). It's a promise to them to save them from their enemies, a reiteration of His promise to them as a people, and finally also a promise to send Jesus, but it's probably misguided to then stretch that further to have it be a promise to us from God for all kinds of situations where it might make us feel better.
...
posted by BT at 7:49 AM
1 Comments:
Dude... I wasn't sure if you wrote this or if you ripped off Philip Yancey. Have you seen his new book, 'Prayer'? I'm almost finished it. I must acknowledge that I don't pray much or well (in my opinion). However, the book is quite encouraging and takes on a lot of the issues you raise. Check it.
Also, did you name the blog after C.S. Lewis' book or the first King's X album? I'll hope for the latter.
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