Pray – Part 3

For the last two weeks, I have been M.I.A. because I’ve been so busy with school! This week hasn’t been any better, and I predict that I will probably be this busy for the rest of the semester. Fortunately, I’m beginning to adapt to the workload and I hopefully will be able to keep up with my blog now. =]

This week, I am continuing my series on prayer. I’ve been reading the book Prayer by Philip Yancey and finished reading through the second part today. My thoughts on prayer are still not crystal clear– in fact, they are still quite jumbled. I think part of the reason is that I am the kind of person who wants complete, irrefutable answers to all of my questions… and unfortunately, my current human condition doesn’t allow me to get them. I have to accept that I will never be able to know or understand certain things completely while I’m here on this planet. I’m sure that God has His reasons for this, but I think an even bigger reason that I’m often left in the dark is that I simply cannot understand things the way God does. My human brain is limited. Don’t get me wrong, it can do amazing things! But compared to God, I may as well be blind, deaf, mute, and paralyzed. And while saying that we simply can’t understand all of the mysteries of life may seem like a cop-out to some people (and in a way I agree), that doesn’t mean that it’s not the truth.

My point with all of that is that I cannot pretend that I have all of the answers. I can’t even pretend that all of the answers are out there, just waiting for us to find. Instead, I can only share my own limited, humble understanding. I can share my own reasons for praying, even when I have doubts, and I can share the revelations that I have discovered from reading the words of wise followers of Christ. That is what I intend to do, and I hope that in doing so I can bring answers to some of your questions, too.

Last week, I focused on the aspect of prayer as a key tool in our personal relationships with God. How can we have a relationship with someone if we never talk to them, after all? Not only is prayer a way that we draw close to God and maintain our relationship with Him, but I also believe that the act of prayer changes and affects us in ways that help us to grow spiritually. Through prayer, we learn to rely on God. We humble ourselves so that we can be lifted up by our Father.

This week, I want to focus on what prayer does. Does prayer change God? Is it effective? Or is it just an exercise that’s meant to change us? Should we even bother to ask God for things?

I found my answer to this particular question in Jesus. As simple as it sounds, one good reason to pray is that Jesus did. When I have doubts about my faith, the one thing (I should say person) that I fall back on is Jesus. That’s because Jesus is the material, physical, literal manifestation of God. Jesus was. And because of that, Jesus is the foundation that I build the rest of my beliefs on; He’s the one thing that I can trust without trying.

Jesus is my model for living, and Jesus prayed! Not only did He pray, but he asked God for things. The Son of God prayed for things that the Father already knew about, cared about, and wanted. Even more bewildering, He prayed for things that were not granted to Him. That’s right! Jesus had unanswered prayers.

This is very comforting to me. First, I find it comforting that Jesus prayed to His Father and that He asked Him for things. Yes, most of the things that He asked for were pretty darn selfless– He was perfect, after all. But at times, or at least one time that I know of, Jesus asked God for something that would only benefit Him, that would in fact be a detriment to everybody else in the world. He asked for God to spare Him from His fate. He was afraid of what was going to happen to Him on the cross, and He asked for a reprieve! It is important to note that after wrestling with His fear and dread in prayer, He eventually surrendered to God’s greater will, which was for Him to die. But for a few moments there, Jesus asked for something just for Himself.

In our prayer lives, as imperfect humans, we very often ask for things for ourselves. Jesus may have only done it a few times, but we (or at least I) do it all the time. I pray for the problems in my life to be solved and I ask for things for my friends and family. My prayers aren’t usually for things like world peace. Instead, they are focused internally on myself and my own life. But I actually think that that’s okay! Prayer is supposed to be honest, and when I pray for the things that are weighing on my heart, I am sharing myself with God. That’s what He really wants anyway.

So Jesus proves that prayer is important and useful, and that we can and should pray to ask God for things. He also shows me that sometimes, God doesn’t give us what we ask for. He didn’t even give Jesus everything that He asked for, which is mind-boggling considering that Jesus was God. If you think about it, this means that God asked Himself for things that He did not grant Himself. Strange, isn’t it? Maybe, but maybe not.

You see, I’m starting to think that Jesus praying to His Father was like God talking to Himself, even reasoning with Himself. It’s something that I do on many occasions and I don’t find it strange, so why should it be strange when God does it? One of the fascinating traits of the Trinity is that each part– God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit– represents a part of who God is. God the Father is often seen as the part who most values justice, and Jesus is seen as the part who most values love and mercy. Could it be that when Jesus prayed to His Father, He was petitioning the just part of His personality to show mercy and love? Since the Father and Jesus are both the same God, it wouldn’t be God changing if He decided to go with mercy and love based on Jesus’ petition. It would just be Him responding to a prayer in a way that is consistent His own nature.

Based on that model, I believe that prayer can and does affect how God intercedes in our world. When we pray, we are participating in a partnership with God. He makes the final decisions, but only after considering the input from His valuable partners. No, we don’t always get what we want. Sometimes, God chooses not to intercede because He has something better in mind for us. Sometimes, I think He might choose not to intercede simply because He’d rather respect our collective freedom to make choices and live with the consequences.

As harsh as that may sound, I believe that it is a decision He makes out of love. As Philip Yancey wrote in his book, “The Bible draws a strong contrast between the freedom-crushing style of evil and the freedom-respecting style of good… Even when he senses his close friend will betray him, Jesus does not intervene with a freedom-crushing miracle.” Miracles are just that– rare, unexpected, gifts that change things from the way that they logically should have been. But when God performing a miracle means taking away somebody else’s freedom to make a choice, even a bad one, and deal with the consequences, then it becomes contrary to his character. God respects freedom even when the result is a broken planet full of broken people.

The key here is that respect doesn’t mean accept. God respects our freedom, but He does not quietly accept the mess that we’ve created with it. He mourns for every pain that every person goes through. He does more than mourn, though; God sees our suffering and takes action. He took action when He sent Jesus to die for us, providing a way for us to escape from the meaningless suffering that we experience here on earth. He freed us from our mess. Circling back around, this is the very reason that we can pray in the first place. Jesus made a bridge between us and God, interceding in the biggest way possible. We enjoy the freedom that He gave us by sharing a meaningful relationship with God.

I believe that prayer is important not only because of what it does to us and our relationship with God, but because it actually works. I still don’t believe that God is a genie who grants all of our wishes, but I do believe that He listens to our prayers and responds according to His nature. Sometimes, that even means that we get what we want. And it always leads us to experience things that God will in one way or another use for the good, so long as we let Him.

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