It seems to me like God doesn’t always come through when I pray. Some things I pray for, things that are good, and yet even then there's no guarantee that He will make them happen. So what’s the point? And doesn’t He already know what I need ahead of time? If you’ve ever had these kinds of thoughts cross your mind before, then stick around and let's see what the Church offers as an answer.
Welcome to answers from an apostolic faith.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
If I have no guarantee that I’ll get what I ask for in prayer, then what’s the point of prayer? And if God knows ahead of time what I will ask for, then why bother telling him? We might as well just remain silent and watch things unfold the way that they will and save ourselves the trouble and the heartache.
My beloved, it's clear that many of us may be tempted to think in this very way and to be tempted to lose heart and to lose faith in the promises of the Lord. There seems to be this idea among many Christians that as long as we ask for good and godly things, then surely God will give them to us. And seeing as how God is omnipotent and He loves us, then surely He will not deprive us from those good things that we are asking for. And yet, even the one Holy Church is filled with a history and examples to prove the complete opposite of this.
The Church has been praying for peace in the world for thousands of years and that’s not happening. We pray for the healing of the sick and yet the people still die. We pray for God’s protection, protection for his children and for the Church and yet the rate of persecution and violence continues to rise. And even though we say God knows all things, we still continue to ask Him for all of these things daily in our liturgical prayers. Does that then mean prayer is useless or that it doesn’t work? To begin answering this, we must first take a step back. There are some major fallacies in this way of thinking. Let’s address two of those misconceptions in today’s video.
Misconception #1: God promises He will answer our prayers. Therefore, He needs to come through and give us what we ask for.
Now some people might hear that and say: No, it's not like that, what we really mean is... and then they would tone down the statement. But if we are honest, this is truly what we mean. But did He promise that? Is that what we see in Scripture? Let’s take, for instance, the
greatest example of prayer in Scripture found in the Gospels, when the Lord Jesus is praying in the garden of Gethsemane. He makes a request to His Father and it is how He does it that places before us the model of prayer we need to all adopt. Let’s all take a look at it together...
'' 38 [And] then He said to them [His disciples], “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” 39 [And] He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ''O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not [what] I will, but as You will.'' (Matthew 26:38-39)
42 [And] again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, ''O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, [then] Your will be done.'' (Matthew 26:42)
My beloved, pay attention to the words that the Lord Jesus teaches us to place our requests before God in prayer, but to always express that we desire God’s will above everything else. Mean that we trust in what He will allow for the sake of what He sees best. And again, the Lord comes back a second time and even prays and says that if I don’t get what I asked for, then I will accept your will, o Lord.
You see how even the Lord Himself, the Word of God incarnate, did not spare himself to experience complete submission in prayer? How He allows himself to be in full obedience to the will of God His father and sets before us the example of how prayer is not merely transactional, but truly relational? And this is where we can learn so much. Too many of us have a vending-machine approach with God: I place my money in the machine, I press the button, and I expect to get what I want; and if I don’t, I push and shove the machine and I get all upset and I get angry... And yet another example is this genie-in-the-lamp approach, where I think that if I say the magic words and if I rub the lamp in the right way, that the genie is now obliged to grant me my wishes.
My beloved, God is not the vending machine nor is He the genie; He is our Father, eternal, all-powerful and all loving. We either believe these things about God, or we don’t. And if we do trust in His timing, His mercy, His justice and His love, then our expectations for prayer will be focused on building relationship with Him. This now leads us to the second misconception.
Misconception #2: Our prayers are a way to inform God or to place our orders before Him.
Let’s be clear, my beloved: in prayer, we aren’t really telling God anything that he doesn’t already know. Again, some might then ask: Then why pray at all? The answer is relationship and intimacy.
Take, for example, a father who was told this morning the detailed account of a funny incident that happened between his two children. When his youngest child comes eagerly to him, excited to share with him the details of what happened this morning, what is the father’s response? Does he interrupt the child and say: I already know all of this, and, don’t waste my time or does he sit there and he listens to every word, even sometimes pretending to not know for the sake of encouraging the child to communicate all that he or she has to say to connect, to share, to grow the relationship?
The same exists with Our Lord. He allows us to communicate all that is in our hearts for our sakes, not His. Allow me to say that the Lord benefits nothing from our prayers. He is, after all, immutable and unchangeable. But it is we who have everything to gain when we pray. We are comforted when come into his presence, we are reminded of His love, we receive His grace, his mercy, his love...
St. John Chrysostom. he comments on this very idea and he expresses it to us beautifully. He explains how we ought to approach God in prayer and he says the following to us:
''[We pray] not to inform God or instruct Him but to beseech Him closely, to be made intimate with Him, by continuance in supplication; to be humbled; to be reminded of our sins.'' (St. John Chrysostom, Homily 19, Gospel of Matthew)
My beloved, according to this great saint, prayer isn’t about an exchange of information or a transactional process by which we place our orders with God that we then maybe like expect Him to be the waiter at the restaurant who brings us our order. We do it for the sake of intimacy, for conversation, for comfort, humility, for peace, and ultimately, for love.
My beloved, let's be encouraged to understand prayer as the Lord always intended us to see it. Let us learn from the Lord Himself how to submit to God’s will in prayer. And let us go to Him in prayer to know Him and to be with Him.
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