Popular Christian Thoughts on Prayer: Part 3
I have been addressing a few ideas on prayer, based on Psalm 139. To be fair, this psalm does
not specifically address prayer. It addresses the spectacular God to whom we pray. In my first
article, I suggested that there is no specific way to pray; no required number of pray-ers; no
necessary emotional expression. God is not interested in form, he is interested in faith, faith in
God who knows everything, thus inviting us to pray about anything. Today – God is everywhere,
so he invites us to pray anywhere.
God Is Everywhere – Vs. 7-12
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are
there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right and will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around
me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for
darkness is as light to you.
Way too often we Christians compartmentalize our lives, falsely thinking that we are with God only in church services, or in Bible study or in our homes when we are praying, but nowhere else. We approach prayer like a TV dinner.
But life with God is not neatly separated out like this. According to this passage, there is no place in all of creation where we are not in the presence of God. Rather than a TV dinner, life with God is a Chicken Pot Pie. Our lives are all wonderfully wrapped up as one whole experience. God sees the seven days of our week as a unit, not as seven individual days. In fact, God sees our life as a unit – not successive and individual years.
If we can get our arms around this concept there is no way we can walk with God and stay the same. Instead of asking God to change our circumstances, we begin to look for God in our circumstances, because no matter where we are or what we are doing, God is there. Gone are anxious and hurried prayers for God to be with us. Instead are prayers for God to show himself to us in the midst of our circumstance; a prayer he will most certainly answer, and when he does – we are changed.
Sometimes he calms the storm
With a whispered peace be still
He can settle any sea,
But it doesn’t mean he will
Sometimes he holds us close
And lets the wind and waves go wild
Sometimes he calms the storm
And other times he calms His child.
Do you see how understanding these truths changes us? We don’t set the agenda in prayer – God
does. We don’t get God to give us what we want – God gives us what he wants. But notice –we
still receive. However, instead of receiving what we want, we receive what God wants for us.
Here is a prayer from an unknown civil war soldier.
“I asked God for strength, that I might achieve, I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy. I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might have the praise of others, I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life, I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for — but everything that I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I among all people, most richly blessed.”
If we could always pray and influence God to adjust to our desires and our wants, we would not experience his strength in the midst of the storms of life; we would not experience his peace in the midst of a crisis; we would not experience his provision in the midst of loss. Sometimes God has treasures for us but they are buried in fields of pain. Since God knows everything we can talk with him about anything. Since God is everywhere, he will show himself to us in every circumstance. And when we pray like that and God gives to us like that - we are never the same.
Prayer is God’s way of giving us what he wants.
And what he wants is always to give us more of himself.