On Prayer

I'll admit it. I've had a lot of difficulty with a topic that a lot of Christians don't seem to bat an eye at. It seems patently obvious to them. Not me. I've always been a bit muddled on the topic.

The topic is prayer. More specifically, it is the effectiveness of prayer. The question would seem to be "Why pray?" Now, if you believe in a God with limited knowledge (like the Open Theist types do), then it makes sense. If your God has surrendered some of His sovereignty to humans, then that, too, is reasonable. In these cases God is just waiting for the information or permission He needs to act. If you're one who believes that your faith can bend God's will because He promised it, so you must get it, then prayer makes sense. You've got your Cosmic Butler who, despite His best intentions, is forced to give you wealth and health because you asked in faith. The God I serve, however, is an omniscient God and a Sovereign God. He does whatever He wills. He doesn't need my permission or my information. I don't provide Him with new insights or data points. "Oh, really? They need something? Well, thanks for pointing that out. I didn't notice." He doesn't say, "Well, that was not in my will for you, but I guess I'll submit to your request because you asked." Not the God I know. So it leaves me with the question, "Why pray?"

Oh, I know the answers. We pray because we are commanded to. Don't thumb your nose at that. Whether or not you understand the why, simply because God told you to is sufficient reason to do something. And we are commanded to pray ... multiple times. So pray! We pray because God wants us to participate in His work. He plans to do something and so He lays it on our hearts and we lift it to Him and He does it and we are blessed to be participants in His work. That's a good thing! James says "The effective prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much" (James 5:16). So pray! And there is another side of prayer -- the relational side. It benefits me to be able to take my thoughts and concerns to my Father. Just the act of presenting them to Him is of value to the person doing the praying.

There are answers, but the reason for my question, once it dawned on me, was disturbing. You see, most of us who ask "Why pray?" do so because God didn't do what we asked. Someone we loved died without Christ even though we prayed for them for years and years. We didn't get something we thought we needed despite our pounding the throne of God for it. We are in pain or temptation and despite our desperate pleas for relief we continue to suffer or succumb. Put that way, it sounds fine. Unfortunately the truth is that our complaint is, in its simplest form, "You didn't give me what I asked for!" I know of no one who would actually voice such an objection, it's true, but the sad truth is that "I didn't get what I wanted from God!!!" is the underlying reason many of us question prayer at all. Now that is pretty pitiful.

I'm still not clear on the topic. I know that we don't change God's mind with our prayers. I know that we don't alter His will with our prayers. I know that we don't inform God with our prayers. I know that prayer changes things, but I believe that mostly the things that are changed are the pray-ers. And I know that God uses our prayers in His work, one of His means to His ends. But how exactly prayer works in view of a Sovereign, omniscient God isn't clear to me. How it is that some people get daily answers to every single prayer they pray (it seems) while others seem to live on "unanswered prayers" eludes me. "How to" is a tough one for me because we want a formula, a method, a plan, and prayer doesn't seem to have that so much. I'm not clear on prayer. But I'm commanded to do it and I do want to participate in God's work, so I'll keep it up. I just wish I understood it better.