Oddities of Prayer

Usually, I forget to pray.  I'm busy and thinking about all the stuff of the day. But recently, I've been focusing on God being with me and contemplating prayer a lot. Which has led me to some remarkable thoughts which I will share with you.

First, you must understand that I fully accept God's awesomeness -- his omnipotence, and sovereignty. He can do anything he wants and as I think further about this, it occurs to me that there is nothing in the universe that can stop him or prevent him from doing what he wants. He can make things happen by a simple word or thought -- really big things too!  I guess he has to be careful :)

Without us, every thought he has would be turned into action; every thing he wills would happen. With us, he has granted us free will. By that, he has limited himself (much like he did when Jesus became a human) to yield control over some aspects of this universe to us. Otherwise, we would have no free will.  In order for me to do what is contrary to his will, he must limit himself to allow that. Otherwise, he will thwart my actions because he has the capacity and since his thoughts are contrary to mine, his way will happen - he can do anything.

On the other hand, I find it remarkable that he would yield to us creatures. Free will is a gift from God -- something he must willfully accomplish. If he doesn't stop himself, we would have no free will.  I would find it pretty painful to be God. How can he let us do all the really stupid things we do? Remarkable.

Secondly, and along those lines, sometimes I get tied up in my prayers -- sort of paint myself into a corner.  It goes like this: God, you invite us to pray to you; you are both all powerful and all knowing; you know what needs to be done and you have the power to do it; soooo --- why do you want me to pray?

Until recently, I accepted that the primary purpose for prayer is to change me. In prayer, I acknowledge that this is his universe and he gets to decide what to do - not me. I need constant reminder of this because it hasn't (even after over 50 years) sunk in yet that he is God and my King.  I need to re-align my goals, needs, desires, will to his. I can pray for things but in the end, he will decide what is right.  So, prayer is really a way for me to re-align with this concept.  While I can have huge passion towards a certain way or thing, I need to calm those passions and accept that he will do what is right (best for all). Furthermore, I need to be happy with what he does.

Yet, as important and good as that is a reason to pray, it is dissatisfying; especially when I'm confronted with aspects of the Bible where we are encouraged to pray diligently and the Lord "changed his mind"!  This means there is another aspect of prayer that is not just about me.  But I didn't understand how this works since he is God and all powerful and stuff, he knows what needs to be done and has the capacity to do it so why does he need me?

What I've recently come to think is that God invites us to join him in creation. Admittedly, this is pretty remarkable, unbelievable even. Why would God, whose intelligence and knowledge are far superior to the sum of all humanity, ask me (clearly just a spec in the grand scheme) what I think should be done?  Or, how could I offer God a solution that he hasn't already thought of?

What occurred to me recently is that it's more like God is saying: "yea, we could do it that way". The image in my head is that of a father working with his son on a project. The father knows there are plenty of ways to accomplish the task and may even know that the proposal of the son may not be the best or most efficient way but also knows that it will get the job done. He may even know there are things that he must do beyond the project, unknown to the son even, in order to make this work but he's willing to do that. That's how I've begun to think of my supplications to the Lord. Less of a me bowing before the king and begging him to consider what in my mind is a great solution. Instead, God is near me and we are working shoulder to shoulder. This second way is much more relational and personal.

It is just as remarkable as the idea that he would send his Son to die for my sins.  But this is the God I believe in. As the catechism goes:

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God,[1] and to enjoy him forever.[2]

Truly there are marvels (oddities) of God that we will spend the rest of eternity learning and getting to know.