Debunking Superstitious Beliefs About Prayer (Part 2)
When I was in Israel, I worked as a coordinator for a house of prayer in Jerusalem. We had patrons from all over the world coming to our space to worship God and pray. Our main prayer room was reserved for constant musical worship and intermittent corporate prayers (somewhat like IHOP in Kansas City). My office was connected to the main prayer room by a window. I literally sat at my desk, facing that window every day, and in the three years of working there, I observed a lot.
The content of a prayer can be very revealing. Prayer is a very personal thing. When you hear peoples' prayers again and again over time, you begin to understand what their deep concerns are, what plagues them, what they struggle with, and how they approach God...
Often times, when we talk about prayer, we discuss it in relation to faith. You will often hear people say that we need faith to pray "effective" prayers, and they can back this concept up with a slew of scriptures. So then you get all these people trying to conjure up "faith" in order to pray. I've been there. I often would try to get in the right mode, as if its some level of willpower, or inner measure of determination. We make faith into a work, as if it's something we can accomplish in the moment, or as if it's something we can gain by being more intense in our attitude. Or when a prayer is answered, we can easily determine that it's because we had enough faith when we prayed for it. Or the opposite: when it isn't answered, we blame our own lack of faith.
The Greek word usually translated into "faith" in the New Testament simply means trust.
You wouldn't trust someone you don't know with your deepest secrets (if you're wise). And how can you trust someone who has failed you? Would you talk to someone who doesn't listen? Can you be yourself around someone who expects perfection, or constantly judges you, or looks down on you? What about someone who is disappointed in you? Would you befriend someone you know doesn't care about you? Can you show weakness to someone who expects you to prove yourself? What about someone who has abused you? Would you feel comfortable asking for something from someone who you know is withholding and distant?
None of these things describe the God of the Bible, but it's often what people subconsciously think about Him. We often project false ideas onto God; these ideas most often come from the character of our own parents or authority figures, or simply what our churches teach us. When we think these things about God, we approach him in strange ways. We often feel the need to legitimize our behavior or formalize it in some way. And when we hear about faith and the "power of prayer," we try to conjure it up as if it's something we can do apart from relationship. Maybe we even ask other people we think are better than us to pray on our behalf. The good thing is that at least this means we start with a measure of faith: we at least know He's the person to go to when we have needs. We've at least decided to believe He's real and have accepted Him as our savior. But we often have a total misconception of his character, making it difficult to trust Him further.
God is actually good. His love is actually unconditional. He's nothing like the failed human counterparts we often project onto Him.
When you know the true character of God, prayer is simple. You can have peace and confidence in your prayers because you know the one who's listening cares even more than you do. If you know you have a father who loves you and accepts you as you are, who doesn't judge you or need you to prove anything, you don't fear approaching him. You don't fear asking him for the things you need or want. He will do anything for you. He has true wisdom. He wants to help you thrive in life. When you know that, it's easy to show your weakness to him. When you know your father loves to laugh and has a lot of grace for you, you can actually be yourself around him. And you don't have to worry about formalities or rituals because... he loves you. And this is what people take for granted: God is a person. He might not answer your every prayer because he has his own free will and he knows what's best. He is not your prayer-answering slave. But you can be confident that your prayers are compelling to Him because He loves you.
This is faith; trusting that God actually is who He says He is. That is our foundation.
The world cannot accept that God is a living being. We seem like crazy people, talking to this "imaginary person." Our culture constantly seeks to depersonalize Him, and that thinking continuously seeps into the collective psyche of the church. But even when we have these funny ideas about his character, or our requests are wracked with all kinds of doubt, he's is still patient and gives us grace: often he answers our prayers anyway. That's just the kind of person He is. In scripture, God calls himself the Father. He calls us sons and daughters. In the Kingdom of God under the New Covenant, we aren't just citizens or servants, we are family. The Christian life is a relationship with the living God. And God is someone we can trust.
Photo by Daniel Lincoln on Unsplash
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