A few days ago, someone complained to me of praying for
something but with no results. I’m quite sure that all people of faith can relate
to this person’s grievance and all of us will at times have experienced the disappointment
of unanswered prayer. This is particularly difficult when, for example we are
praying for the health of a loved one who is unwell, and for whatever reason
they don’t recover. Doubtless there are other equally pressing difficulties
which we have at times taken to God in our prayers, and to all appearances, the
heavens are as brass.
These experiences of unanswered prayer are not unique to us.
King David writes in the Psalms of his sense of isolation from God. Jeremiah
the prophet (miserable so and so if ever there was one) writes a whole book of
Lamentations. Saint John of the Cross, the 16th Century Roman
Catholic mystic writes of what he calls the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ when God
seems afar off. We can conclude from these, from many other authors and from
our own experiences too, that very often, there are times when God seems to
turn his ear away from our pleas.
This leads us to ask, ‘Is there any value in praying? What
is the point if God ignores our requests?’
To address this, we need to think about what prayer is and
what prayer isn’t. For the Christian, prayer is of course a vital expression of
our faith in Christ and St Paul encourages his readers to ‘pray without
ceasing’.
There are countless books available on ‘how to pray’, and whilst
these can be very helpful, the general approach is to tell us that if we apply
certain methods and techniques, our prayers will be more effective. The implication
here is that if our prayers are not receiving the answers we are wanting, then
we must be doing it wrong! This is somewhat misleading and we do well to remind
ourselves that God is not some sort of benevolent giver-out of goodies if we do
things properly. God cannot be bribed or manipulated by human effort, nor does
he operate like some sort of delivery service whereby we order our goods and
then they appear.
Prayer is about engaging with our heavenly Father. It is about
expressing the relationship we have with God and spending time with him. This
is very different from the ‘shopping list’ approach. This isn’t to say that God
doesn’t answer prayer, because he does. His ‘ears’ are attentive to the cries
of his people, and when we pray for others, we are bringing them into the flow
of God’s love and compassion that is expressed through giving us his Son and
that is mirrored in our thoughts as we lift our loved ones in prayer. Sometimes
this may result in miraculous intervention. More often though people find a
sense of strength and support that wouldn’t otherwise be there.
If prayer could change everything, then there would be no war,
no famine, no ills in the world, but of course, this is not the case. God has
given human beings control over our own lives and he doesn’t trample on that gift
and remove it from us. This means that many of the things that we pray for are
things for which we already have the answer. For example, pray for the poor by
all means, but give to them too!
So why pray? We should pray because we are created to be in
a relationship with God, and like any relationship this needs time and effort
to be maintained. Prayer is primarily about ‘being’ about allowing the time to rest
in God’s presence, and if we are doing that, we are becoming a conduit through
which love can flow into the world from the Source of all love. It changes us and
it impacts upon the world around us, and sometimes, perhaps often enough to be
encouraging, the supernatural power of God is released into the world and into
the circumstances for which we pray with sudden and dramatic results. This does
not depend upon our faith or using the correct formula or anything else that
comes from us, other than the love that God has put within our hearts. It is
all about the grace of God revealed to the world through Jesus Christ, by the
Holy Spirit.
Let us pray…..
No comments:
Post a Comment