Prayer: Can we Hope for real Change?

Does prayer really change things? Should prayer be used only to thank God for all he has given us or are we allowed to ask for *things? If God has a plan for our lives, prayer won't change anything: all we can hope for is to be able to accept what is already going to happen.

*by "things" I mean health, family harmony, safe travel...NOT new cars, boats vacations, etc...

Thanks for this great question. It’s a question that probably deserves a 15 page essay, single spaced (whoa…seminary flashback), but I’ll do the best I can with a couple paragraphs. I think I see two questions here actually (that was very sneaky of you)…the FIRST is, does prayer really change things? The assumption that is tagged onto this first question is that God has a comprehensive plan for our lives and all that we can do is accept what is already going to happen. Okay, that’s the first one (as if that one isn’t enoughJ), the SECOND separate, yet not altogether unrelated question is, is it ok to pray for things, that is things like “health, family harmony, safe travel…NOT new cars, boats, vacations, etc…”

First things first…does prayer really change things? I think that the answer is clearly “YES!” Of course prayer changes things, but the next question, I suppose, is…how? How does prayer change things? I think that gets more to the heart of the question being asked. What do you think about the following, different perspective…“Prayer changes me and I change things.”

This statement is much more true to my own prayer life, and also to what I read in scripture about prayer. Prayer is intimate communication with God that changes and transforms ME, and the way that I live and act in the world. This may be a minor example, but I can remember an experience back in college when Angie’s roommate said something really mean and hurtful to her. When Angie told me about it I got really angry and my first instinct was to go over there and let her roommate have it (verbally, that is). So, I did…and it went horribly. I made a fool of myself and only made the situation much worse. But I learned a valuable lesson…and every time since then that I’ve found myself in a similar situation, instead of reacting out of my anger or hurt or whatever, I pray. I bring all that I am feeling before God and God has the amazing ability to take all of that junk and replace it with peace and calm and a solution that will bring healing rather than more harm. Through prayer God changes ME and I change things…this is NOT to say that God cannot interject in God’s creation and change things all by God’s self, certainly God can and God does, but I think God primarily uses us as his tools of change.

Think about Jesus, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane (see Mk. 14:34-36), he knows full well what lies before him, the cross. The text tells us that Jesus was distressed, agitated, and deeply grieved, even to death. In his torment Jesus throws himself onto the ground and prays this incredible prayer, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.” Jesus asks for a “thing” here. He asks that this “cup” be taken from him and the cup that he is talking about is the suffering and death that he was about to endure. Now, we all know, that this cup was not taken away from Jesus, a day later he was nailed to the cross. So, what are we to make of this, did his prayer not work? Did it not change anything? By no means, Jesus prayer changed him, through this prayer Jesus communed with his Abba, and I have to believe that he received the strength and the peace (you know, that peace which passes all human understanding) to continue on and to endure everything that was to come.

I haven’t left much room for your second question, but hopefully you’ve seen that yes, it is more than okay to pray for any-thing that is on your heart or mind, as Jesus did. Take “family harmony”, for example, this is one that so many people deal with. If you pray to God for peace in your family, he may not magically make everything great all of the sudden, but God will most certainly give you the strength and the peace and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to do what you can do to bring harmony to your family. I better stop there so that this can fit in our newsletter…please feel free to add any thoughts you might have on the blog: http://www.askpastortony.blogspot.com/

Peace, Pastor Tony