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Wednesday, January 31, 2007

My thoughts on Prayer

Congrats Joanna- you got me to blog for the first time in a few weeks. She blogged about the Colts. I do not intend to reveal my loyalties about the game, though I may after the game is finished. What I intend to do is respond to her question about praying for the outcome of the game. I knew it would get too long if I just left a comment, so I am devoting a whole blog to it. Plus, I have been wanted to write about this topic and now I have motivation.

To preface, these are just my thoughts about prayer as I have experienced in my life. They have not been checked against scripture for their validity. But as I see it, there are 3 different types of communication we can have with God. First, we can talk to Him. This is simply conversing with Him as you would a friend: sharing the events of the day, your emotions and reactions to those events. This also includes statements about your desires, dislikes, and other emotions. These treat God as a friend who cares and is listening to anything you care to say.

Secondly is what I'll call a request. This is where the conversation shifts from being solely a friendship and introduces the idea that God is the Creator and Giver who cares for you and can act in your life. Here you ask things of God that you would like, with the knowledge that He is able to meet your request.

Lastly we have what I'll officially call prayer. While I have not looked up the scriptures, I believe this is supported as a conversation in which you trust fully in God's power and know that He will give you what you ask. Note the difference between what I call prayer and a request. A request acknowledges that God can do what you ask and a prayer acknowledges that God will do what you have asked.

But how is prayer even possible; do we ever know for certain that God will do as we ask? While I don't want to open up this new topic, I will say that I have been led by God to pray certain things which I fully believe He will grant, if I am willing to pray for them as He leads. A prayer is, therefore, not selfish. You know that God will grant the prayer when it is for His glory, in line with His plan, presented humbly. So a prayer is always answered in the way we asked? If it meets the requirements I listed above, yes.

I have often found that prayers require surrendering my own desires for what I know is God's desire. Prayers are hard to say, since they may not be what you want to ask of God. Requests are the desires you have and, knowing God has the power, you ask of Him. This DOES NOT make requests any less important, though I believe prayers are the mark of a mature Christian.

My conversations tend to have all three of these elements: I start by talking about my life in general and God tends to reveal to me what His will is. I then pray for those things, with a humble heart. But I always add my requests. He loves me for who I am, and while He is making me into His image, He knows I still have my own desires. I share those with Him; I ask Him for those things that I want. But I always end something like this: "God, this (my prayer) is what I want and I know You will do. I want it because You want it. But these things (my requests), Lord, are the things that I want. Grant them if You wish, but thank you for granting my prayers."

Wow, this is a long road to get to the answer (do you even remember the question?). I think we can ask God to bring about a certain outcome for the game, as long as we realize this is only a request: a question posed to God not because He will do it, but because He can. Oh, and He does care about these types of things (listen to Dr. Spiegel's idea on this).

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