Did you ever ask yourself: What is the justification for Prayer?
There are, of course, many without an understanding of God who might state that prayer is a form of 'positive thinking', or 'self hypnosis', perhaps similar to the 'placebo effect'. That any results attributed to prayer is simply a coincidence, or even some rationalization to support our 'superstition', even going so far as to state that when our prayers are not answered the way we wished or expected, that 'It was not the will of the Lord.' Many believe that what we see as 'Miracles' would just as well have happened without any prayer at all.
When one has such a mindset, there are no 'logical' answers to help them. Only sincere, meaningful and loving prayer is likely to help them see the light.
However, for those who do pray, my question is why? Let us analyse the possibilities.
First, for prayer to have any positive results, or even meaning, one must have some hope of or belief that the object of our prayer must be some God, or power, or being that number one, can be aware of our petition, number two, has the desire to grant or deny our petition, or three, has the power to do so if It wishes.
I seem to be unaware of how any thinking human being could go through the above analysis and then worship a graven image, or icon, or even a naturally appearing 'sign' from which they would expect to receive results from prayer. Maybe this is just my unenlightened thinking.
But we are going to look at the prayers of 'Christians', and then again ask those same questions. One, Christians generally believe in a God, and it is usually the one described in the Bible. If that is so, then one must assume that they believe that God can 'hear' our prayers, whether spoken or unspoken, as distinctly as if He were in the room with us, and keep our petition separate from the hundreds of millions of prayers being offered at the precise same time as ours. But, does He have the desire to respond? Does He really care? Does He have the Power? Does He have the will? Does He really know me? Does He understand my need or my concern?
Here is where I have some concern. There are many 'Christians' who say that the 'Heavens' are closed. That there is no more revelation. That the Bible contains the whole revealed 'Word of God'. That all of the information that we need to get answers or solve our problems is contained in the Bible. If that is so, then there can be no answer to prayer. Such an answer would in fact be 'new revelation', even if it is only directed to one person.
And yet, I believe that all 'Christians' pray. I have been in many 'Christian' bookstores, and find many books about prayer, how to pray, intercessory prayers for others, and the miracles of prayer. I have attended the worship services of many differing 'Christian' congregations and have heard them all pray.
PS. So as not to offend, when I use the generic term 'He' to describe God, for those who believe that God is a woman, subtitute She. I think that I will stop here, and wait for comments.
With love, Roland
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Grandpa - I wanted to share a reference from the Bible dictionary that I think gives good insight to prayer. It says, "As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part. Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work, and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blesings."
I think this brings up a few important aspects of prayer. First, that prayer is communication with our Father. As you mentioned this principle makes it difficult to understand why one would intent to pray to a graven image.
Second, prayer helps us to align our lives with the will of heavenly Father. It requires humility to pray often. As we do this we come to know the Father's will and understand him more.
Third, our Father wants to bless us, but we need to do our part.
I have felt the blessings of having my prayers answered in my life. I have also had to learn as some of my prayers haven't been answered how I would have liked them.
I think prayer is something we always can learn to do better.
I could go on forever, so I'll stop there.
Ryan
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