Prayer Discussion #1
I was going to reply in a comment on this post, but Ash’s comments here were far too insightful and relevant not to make into their own posts.
[A]bout our small group prayer. Although I enjoy the way we’re doing it, I also feel as though we’re still weak on the ‘acknowledging that Jesus is part of the conversation’ bit. Yes, Jesus is with us and listening, but sometimes I personally forget that he’s there and listening. It’s part of a larger lifestyle direction of mine to try to learn to constantly and consciously live in the presence of God. But I’m unsure of how to remind myself and everyone else that as we talk, God is also there in the conversation with us. Well I know how I might to it, but my cheeseometer would hit the roof!
Also, I do miss the times of approaching the throne together, hearing other’s prayers and being able to agree with them. I would like to spend more time in prayer together, not getting through the lists, but just talking with and listening to God together as a community.
Right off the bat, let me say that I completely and totally agree. 100%.
And there isn’t even a “but…” following that sentence. I think you might have been under the impression that we disagreed on this, but we don’t.
I don’t think our small group prayer time is what it should be, but I am quite happy that we’ve moved away from the very uncomfortable list-recitals-in-the-round. I (and Mr. Spencer in the source article) wasn’t trying to say anything other than “Hey, folks, prayer isn’t for a grocery list of gimme gimmes”.
Corporate prayer can be an incredible act of devotion. It can bring us together as worshippers before Him. So perhaps, if we’re both (the four of us?) feeling similarly, we should bring it up at the next meeting. I’d like to discuss (here, and in person) what a prayer time is, what it could and should be, and how we deal with the laundry list type stuff that we’re so attached to.
I realize that it’s difficult to nail down exactly what prayer should look like, especially in a group setting, but what do you think? How do you have God there in the conversation without breaking the cheeseometer, and without demanding selfish things?
The purpose and content of prayer is one of the things I’m currently struggling with. Not “the purpose of prayer” as in “why bother praying?” but more like “what is prayer FOR?”. I am consistently bothered by those news articles where the sole survivor of a bus wreck says that God was looking out for him. What about the non-survivors? What about the parents of lost children who pray and their children don’t come back? I’m not so much wondering whether I need to pray, so much as I am convinced that the common understanding of prayer, the North American cultural Christianity ideas about prayer, are completely wrong.
Where that goes, I dunno. Hopefully we can work it out together.
I’ve been thinking on this topic since the first post, so here are some of my mullings.
While I agree with the comments about how prayer often turns into a “grocery list”, I don’t believe that God is uninterested with the things we ask for, perhaps just disappointed in how we ask. (And I understand that no one on this post has implied that.)
I’ve just started reading a book about listening for God’s voice. The author uses the metaphor of a phone conversation for how many people pray. But instead of conversing with God, we leave him a message on the answering machine. Not that God isn’t there to talk to, we just don’t wait for him to respond. I like the example Ash used of the parent-child relationship, but the marriage metaphor works well here too. If, when I talk to my husband, I only give a list of my days activities, thoughts, concerns and wishes, without listening to him - then what kind of relationship would that be? It would quickly become stunted. Same with our relationship with God. If we call him up on the phone (as it were) and speed through our requests with a hasty “Amen” and return to our hectic lives, then we aren’t learning more about him and growing closer to him. Relationships, whether marriage, parent-child, or any other friendship, are about the spending time together as much as the content. Not every interaction has to be the deepest, I think God just loves to hear from us and whatever concerns us. But, just because he loves to hear from us doesn’t mean that he will necessarily act on our desires. For instance, I don’t think that God sides with any one sports team, no matter what the winners say. :)
As for the “3 questions” topic, I’ve heard this a lot from conversations I had with people. My first thought is, who are we to question God’s plan? Not an easy thing to say or hear, especially in something tragic like a death of a loved one or the mass deaths in a natural disaster. But we know that God’s plan is perfect. His perfect. Not ours. (This isn’t to say that I think God doesn’t feel our sorrow in tragic circumstances. I believe that he grieves with us. But this gets off topic.)
In the above example of the bus wreck, the survivor’s recognition of God’s grace to him/her may be little consolation to those grieving, but that doesn’t make it less true. God could have allowed that person to die too. There is some reason that he/she lived. And we may never know it. It doesn’t mean either, that those who died weren’t praying. Maybe they were. The problem that I think we come across in trying to understand the “why” is that we begin to blame prayer or even the faith of those praying. I know when a family member of mine passed away I began to question if I had prayed enough. I began to think that my unfaithfulness in prayer led to her death. Many years later, I now understand that I could’ve been praying day and night and the result may have been the same. God decided that it was her time to leave this earth. His timing, not mine.
So, I guess I’m saying that none of those questions are really easy to answer. I liked the response that said we don’t need to know, as long as we know God. My praying for my family and friends, their health and even protection, is not in vain. God hears my prayers. Sometimes my prayers are in line with his plan, sometimes they aren’t. It’s tough to explain, and it’s not always easy to accept when he says no. But the important thing, is that I keep in contact with God. He knows what matters to me, and he knows that I’m committed to bringing my requests before him. One of my favourite verses, especially when I begin to worry about anything, is 1 Peter 5:7. “Cast ALL your cares upon Christ, for he cares for you” (emphasis mine)
That’s my thoughts. I’m still working at putting them into action.
Sorry for the lengthiness, but I’m very interested to hear what others think on this matter.