This may be coherent, but I just spent the weekend on a camping trip with energetic boy scouts, so there’s no guarantee. First, some background and questions bouncing in my head, partially strained for extraneous digressions:
There are probably as many reasons to pray as there are people praying, but I want to focus on those prayers in which we ask God to intercede or bring about a change in some event (often an illness). In a post called Does Prayer Change God’s Mind?, Scot McKnight wrote:
Any reasonable examination of “intercessory” prayer admits of two explanations: either we are seeking to bend God’s will to ours — or seeking to change the mind of God — or we are merely aligning ourselves with God’s will in the act of communing with God.
Do you believe it’s possible to change God's mind through prayer? Or do you believe that, instead, God uses prayer to align our wishes with God’s will? Some might argue that it is possible to change God's mind as long as what we're asking for is aligned with God's will, but if that's the case, are we really "changing" God's mind?
I've been all over the board on this but the following passages (and several more like it), in which, Jesus talks about praying with persistence, keep me pondering (my emphasis in bold):
"Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'
"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."
- Luke 11:5-10
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'
"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "
And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
- Luke 18:1-8
Jesus tells his disciples to pray persistently. Does that mean that, if we are persistent, God will give us what we’re asking for? As I interpret it (and maybe I’m being selective), God will respond with what we need (not the same as what we want). Not material goods, not physical healing, but something with deep spiritual significance… something that brings us closer to God.
There's one other aspect that steers me away from “Why would we think our prayers might change God’s mind?” to “Why wouldn't it, if the circumstances are right?”. If we are called through Jesus to be a part of God's work on earth now (and I believe that), is it all a one-way interaction? If we are called into a relationship with God (through Jesus or through the work of the Spirit), is it a one-sided venue where God calls all of the shots? Or can it be a collaboration? Is it possible that God doesn't have everything laid out for us in advance but is open to our suggestions?
I don’t know. You have to start by asking if God has a will for everything in our lives. I’m not so sure the answer is yes. When I look at random chance or the phenomenon of complexity, I often think that God created these things along with the rest of science to order the world and that He only intervenes at certain points. Maybe those points have to do with accomplishing something as grand as His overall plan for the world, or something as seemingly minor as establishing or deepening someone’s relationship with Him, including responding to prayer. I believe that God loves each one of us enough that working on those relationships isn’t a minor thing to Him. What we don’t know is how these things we pray for fit in with everything else. Finally, what about the old saying that you better be careful what you ask for because you just might get it?
ReplyDeleteThen there’s the example of Abraham apparently (temporarily) changing God’s mind about destroying Sodom in Gen 18:16-33. Here’s a crystal clear biblical example of a human changing God’s mind (although I’m not sure God has a mind, but never mind). This has always blown my mind, or what little is left of it. In Gen 19 God destroys Sodom, although we don’t know how much later. Even so, in Gen 19:15-21 two angels who have been sent to Lot are getting him out of Sodom but Lot is tired and wants to stop at Zoar, which he wasn’t supposed to do. However, he successfully pleads with the two angels not to destroy Zoar along with Sodom and Gomorrah.
Thanks for this honest post. I think our theology has to work overtime if we're going to overcome the meaning of passages where it does seem that God changes his mind in response to prayer (see especially Gen. 18). We must let the Story shape our theology, not the other way around.
ReplyDeleteI got to this post as I'm preparing to preach on John 15:7. Jesus tells us that whatever we wish will be done IF we are abiding in Christ and Christ's words in us. Why? Because as this happens, we desire what God yearns to give.
At the same time, I love your last paragraph. God relates/converses, doesn't just decree. Thanks!