Prayer

The other night I went to a meeting for one of the local campus ministries. The speaker spoke on prayer. Although I didn't completely agree with her, her talk led me to do some thinking on this difficult subject and the nature of God. She left us with interesting quote that said, "History is in the hands of intercessor." Now I understand what's that quote is trying to say and I agree that prayer is that important and necessary, but I think that it needs a crucial modification. I would like to reword the quote to say, "History is in the hands of the intercessor's God." Certainly this adjustment gives us a better description of the truth.

Let me put it this way. Why pray? Why do we ask God for certain things? Why do we petition the Father? Well, when it comes down to it, we pray because we assume that God has the power and authority to do something about our requests. In other words, the very concept of prayer assumes that God is sovereign and omnipotent. If God doesn't have the power and authority to change things, then why ask Him to do anything about it? When we pray, we are admitting to God that we are in desperate need for His intervention. The pray-er must realize that he is helpless and God is his only solution to the problem.

For instance, I ask God to heal somebody, I'm assuming that He has the ability to do so. If I pray for someone's salvation, I assume that God has the power to do something about it. If I pray for more leaders for youth group, I must believe that God can do something about it. This is what I mean when I say that history is in the hands of the intercessor's God.

But that's not the whole story. We also pray because we assume that God listens to our prayers. In other words, we assume that God somehow responds to us. Our requests are important to Him and in some incomprehensible way our prayers shape God's plan. That is the other side of the coin. For instance, when I pray for someone to be saved, I assume that person's salvation is somewhat contingent on my prayers. If I pray for someone to be healed, I assume that I must pray in order for God to respond to the need.

At first glance, this seems to leave us with a hopeless contradiction, but as I read Scripture I'm convinced that both are true. God is sovereign and man is responsible to pray. God is unchanging and at the same time, our prayers in some way change Him. I don't get it. I don't pretend to. I just know that there is plenty of Scripture to back up both sides of the coin. I just don't want to fall into one extreme or the other. Once again, I'm learning to be happy with the tension.