Sunday Sermonette: Unanswered Prayer
Sen. David Perdue, freshman Republican senator from Georgia, opened his remarks at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference the other day by encouraging attendees to pray for President Obama. But, he added snarkily, they need to pray for him in a particular way: “We should pray for him like Psalms 109:8 says: May his days be short,” the senator said.
The necessity for and efficacy of prayer is one point on which all three Western religions agree. All believers are encouraged to pray daily, and some are required to pray multiple times a day.
Christians are urged to pray for their daily bread (Matt. 6:10-14), to ask for anything in Jesus’ name and it will be granted (John 44:13-14, John 16:23), even to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Scarcely a day goes by without a Facebook friend or family member asking for prayers for some intention or other.
Senator Purdue thought he was being witty. He was half right. Psalm 109 is what’s called an imprecatory prayer - a curse, in other words. It continues, Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children…
Yeah, Senator Purdue is a shining example of Christian love, isn’t he? Had he just threatened to shoot the President, he’d be answering some hard questions by the Secret Service right about now. But the Secret Service as well as his audience at the Faith & Freedom Coalition all know one thing full well even if they won’t say it aloud: God doesn’t answer prayers.
Even with our human propensity for confirmation bias, counting the hits and forgeting the misses, we know from personal experience that at least most prayers go unanswered. We just don’t talk about it. No one stands up in church and says, “I prayed to God to cure my cancer, and now I’m stage four and will be dead in a month.” “I prayed for work, but I’m still unemployed and the bank is foreclosing.” “We prayed for God to keep this church going, but we still can’t afford to pay the pastor.”
When I began studying for the ministry, this was something I particularly wanted to know more about. What do we say to people when their prayers go unheeded? What words of comfort and wisdom can we share when, despite storming the heavens with prayer, a child dies, or an illness turns worse, or a compulsion is unrelieved, or misfortune follows misfortune? If prayer is unanswered, might it be because it was unheard?
Here’s what I learned: all that the wisest religious people have to offer are excuses, justifications, and rationalizations.
Well, you see, we pray that God’s will be done. We are praying to align our wills with his and trust his divine plan.
So why bother praying at all if God’s just going to do what he’s going to do?
Because God is your heavenly father. You talk with your earthly father, don’t you? Prayer is conversation with God.
Monologue isn’t conversation. I’m praying for an answer, not to hear myself.
“You must not try experiments on God, your Master,” wrote C.S. Lewis in an essay on the efficacy of prayer. How dare you expect what Jesus himself said to be true?
And what does it mean when my prayer is ignored, but someone else stands up in church to testify about their answered prayers? Does God like them better than me? Am I doing it wrong? How have I failed? How can it be God’s will that I suffer while a thumping crook prospers?
You must trust God’s ineffable plan.
I sometimes wonder if religion doesn’t so much offer comfort to the person suffering, but to those around him. With a few platitudes, they can discharge their duty to the unfortunate. Terrible about your house burning down. I’ll pray for you. Your children are in a better place now.
Happy chances and coincidences happen to everyone, regardless of their religion or prayer habits. So does misfortune and disaster. Nowadays, whenever I’m asked to pray for someone, I ask if there’s anything I can do. I recently was able to provide material assistance to someone dear to me, and was nonplussed when God got the credit. I wonder who would been blamed had I not helped?
Perhaps it’s just as well that magical thinking can’t affect reality. Can you imagine the chaos if our politicians’ prayers were actually answered?
"When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way, so I stole one and asked for forgiveness." -- Emo Phillips
“Hands that help are better by far than lips that pray.” -- Robert Ingersoll
The necessity for and efficacy of prayer is one point on which all three Western religions agree. All believers are encouraged to pray daily, and some are required to pray multiple times a day.
Christians are urged to pray for their daily bread (Matt. 6:10-14), to ask for anything in Jesus’ name and it will be granted (John 44:13-14, John 16:23), even to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Scarcely a day goes by without a Facebook friend or family member asking for prayers for some intention or other.
Senator Purdue thought he was being witty. He was half right. Psalm 109 is what’s called an imprecatory prayer - a curse, in other words. It continues, Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children…
Yeah, Senator Purdue is a shining example of Christian love, isn’t he? Had he just threatened to shoot the President, he’d be answering some hard questions by the Secret Service right about now. But the Secret Service as well as his audience at the Faith & Freedom Coalition all know one thing full well even if they won’t say it aloud: God doesn’t answer prayers.
Even with our human propensity for confirmation bias, counting the hits and forgeting the misses, we know from personal experience that at least most prayers go unanswered. We just don’t talk about it. No one stands up in church and says, “I prayed to God to cure my cancer, and now I’m stage four and will be dead in a month.” “I prayed for work, but I’m still unemployed and the bank is foreclosing.” “We prayed for God to keep this church going, but we still can’t afford to pay the pastor.”
When I began studying for the ministry, this was something I particularly wanted to know more about. What do we say to people when their prayers go unheeded? What words of comfort and wisdom can we share when, despite storming the heavens with prayer, a child dies, or an illness turns worse, or a compulsion is unrelieved, or misfortune follows misfortune? If prayer is unanswered, might it be because it was unheard?
Here’s what I learned: all that the wisest religious people have to offer are excuses, justifications, and rationalizations.
Well, you see, we pray that God’s will be done. We are praying to align our wills with his and trust his divine plan.
So why bother praying at all if God’s just going to do what he’s going to do?
Because God is your heavenly father. You talk with your earthly father, don’t you? Prayer is conversation with God.
Monologue isn’t conversation. I’m praying for an answer, not to hear myself.
“You must not try experiments on God, your Master,” wrote C.S. Lewis in an essay on the efficacy of prayer. How dare you expect what Jesus himself said to be true?
And what does it mean when my prayer is ignored, but someone else stands up in church to testify about their answered prayers? Does God like them better than me? Am I doing it wrong? How have I failed? How can it be God’s will that I suffer while a thumping crook prospers?
You must trust God’s ineffable plan.
I sometimes wonder if religion doesn’t so much offer comfort to the person suffering, but to those around him. With a few platitudes, they can discharge their duty to the unfortunate. Terrible about your house burning down. I’ll pray for you. Your children are in a better place now.
Happy chances and coincidences happen to everyone, regardless of their religion or prayer habits. So does misfortune and disaster. Nowadays, whenever I’m asked to pray for someone, I ask if there’s anything I can do. I recently was able to provide material assistance to someone dear to me, and was nonplussed when God got the credit. I wonder who would been blamed had I not helped?
Perhaps it’s just as well that magical thinking can’t affect reality. Can you imagine the chaos if our politicians’ prayers were actually answered?
"When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way, so I stole one and asked for forgiveness." -- Emo Phillips
“Hands that help are better by far than lips that pray.” -- Robert Ingersoll