Some Thoughts on Prayer...

Our human ancestors lived in relative fear and subjugation of the elements. Floods, hurricanes, storms, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, droughts, lightning – all things beyond their control. We still refer to these things as “acts of God.” Add to that sickness, disease, and death – again, beyond their control, beyond their limited human power. But it didn’t take much imagination to come up with the notion that there might be animating powers in the world, super-natural powers that controlled these natural forces. So our ancestors began praying to these supernatural powers, trying to placate them or gain their favor, in order to gain some control over how these elements affected their lives.

Sometimes offerings were made to these gods – harvest offerings or even blood offerings. It was believed that because these supernatural gods controlled the natural forces of our world, praying to them and even using their names could give our ancestor at least some control over their lives. This is, in my opinion, how petitionary prayer was born. And it hasn’t died. Christians still pray “in Jesus’ name”, trusting that doing so will somehow grant us God’s ear better than if we didn’t use it.

But petitionary power comes with a few problems, does it not? In the first place, we now have a much better understanding of how the natural forces in our world work. We (or at least most of us) don’t attribute the weather to God’s anger or pleasure. We know that disease is usually caused by germs and viruses. Modern medicine has proven its effectiveness against disease and sickness,

whether involving the religious or non-religious. Though it is not perfect, it is certainly more reliable than prayer. And I haven’t seen that using Jesus’ name really makes much of a difference in answered prayers. Another problem is this: If God is omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing), praying to Him is a futile exercise. He already knows what He is going to do and has the power to do it. Praying to Him is not going to change that, is it? I mean, if He really is “in control of everything”, as most Christians seem to think He is, how could our prayers possibly influence Him?

 There is the possibility of “open theology”, the notion that while God is indeed all-powerful, the future is not set. In this scenario, we could appeal to God to use His power to grant our prayers. But it still leaves us with an awful lot of prayers that go unanswered. So I tend not to rely on petitionary prayer. Why? Because I haven’t found it reliable. My prayers are mostly “thank You.” And I think God, rather than being all-powerful, has actually given us a substantial amount of power over our own lives. We might be the answer to our own prayers. We can rely on God to empower us or motivate us, but we might just be the way that God works in our world. How’s that for heresy?

By Bill McCracken