I Just Don’t Get It…..

I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of prayer. Why is it that when something good happens, something that we wanted to happen….happens and you tell people about it, why is the most common response (in the Christian World), “Oh Praise God! I prayed for you” or “Hallelujah! God is great! I prayed for you every night!” or “God is good! I added you to the prayer list at my school” etc etc. I could go on and on. The “God is great, God is good” part I get. What I don’t get is why people tag on the phrase, “I prayed for you” right after it.

Is it supposed to “prove” that God had a hand in what happened? Or is it really meant to make the person just feel good about themselves, knowing and letting it be known that he or she prayed? Is it a mixture of both ?

My real dilemma involves what happens when the thing you wanted to happen….doesn’t happen. The most common responses include “Well, God must have other Plans” or “It was Satan” or “Sometimes God allows things to happen for reasons we can’t explain”. Why is it that nobody tags the phrase “I prayed for you” when this kind of situation happens? Is it because it’s deep down scary? A true fact that we want to keep silent as to not raise any questions or doubts about our wonderful God? Why is that we can never attribute the fact that God had a hand in the thing that didn’t happen? Is it because (again) deep down, we just can’t handle it? It would shake our faith too much? Or heaven forbid, make us think?

What really is prayer? In the Bible, somewhere I do not remember where, it says that God is unchanging. Translation meaning you cannot change him and you cannot change his mind. I remember this so well because it struck a chord with me. I learned about this in an Apologetics class I took in college through the church I attended. The “reason” my teacher gave us for this seemingly contradiction to prayer is that you cannot change God’s mind….but you can change his attitude. WTF? You can change his attitude…and so that in turn changes what? his mind? nothing?

What if prayer is more of a tool for having just a plain old conversation with God? A conversation that helps center our emotions and thoughts down to those that are more morally aligned with Jesus? When we are centered and re-balanced, our emotions in check…we then make the best decisions possible. I believe prayer used as a channel for such re-balancing is essential and very powerful. Are we really supposed to put so much stock in “asking” for uncontrollable things (cancer, pregnancy, etc) through prayer? Asking for God to do something or not do something that which we literally cannot control?

God is great no matter what. I feel like when we ask God to do something that which is out of our control (cancer, etc) it’s…I don’t know….it’s something an adjective that I can’t think of at the moment. I feel like it almost brings him down to our human level where our understanding is so limited and so easily influenced by justifications and “reasonings”.

When you ask God for good health and in return you get stage three melanoma…..what is your response? How do you justify it? How does it make you feel? Is prayer really about “asking” for things so much as it should just be a way to meditate? To focus on God? On ourselves, friends, family? To reflect on what we can control? To simply commune with God? To engage in conversation?

Or does Prayer really and truly have an effect on what God decides? If you don’t pray a certain way…does it not happen? I say this because I’ve seen so many books on “How to Pray” and “What to Pray For”. If you don’t ask for something and start a prayer list…does it not happen? Was the Apologetics class I took in college….misinforming? Can what you say to God and how you say it….really influence what happens in life? And further more…can anyone really answer that question?

I actually believe the answer is no. I believe you can give out alot of theories and reasonings…but the truth is sought, known, and felt from within.

But even then…generally…what is felt from within springs from whatever knowledge you have absorbed and learned.

I once read a quote that said something like ” what is emotion with reason? And, what is reason without some sort of belief system? or standard set for oneself?” . Feelings and emotion must not be left alone, it must coincide with reason. Your reason must spring from somewhere…..

Does anyone actually ever really, truly know the Truth? My answer would be no because it totally contradicts the definition of faith. Think about it. How many  times in your life have you truly and sincerely felt you were right about something (anything!) only to find out later on (weeks, years) that you were wrong? It’s a fact of life that we must not ignore. A fact that proves we cannot just settle for any puddle of knowledge. We must continue to explore and not get held down inside some invisible box that is comfortable. Continuous comfort does nothing for the human spirit. It provides a false sense of security.