Question: Why Pray When You Can Act?

Anonymous asked:

Does God answer petitionary prayers? If so then how does He go about answering them? It seems like the most obvious thing to do is get up and do something about it instead of praying to God about it. Petitionary prayer almost seems like an unnecessary waste of time when it is so much more efficient to get up and do something. Also it seems like God would have more reasons to not answer our prayers given our sinful nature.

 

Like Forrest Gump once said: I think it’s both.

I often see a false dichotomy between two biblical ideas that, plainly speaking, says more about our un-nuanced black-and-white 3 lb. brain than anything about the Bible. When my stupid human categories can’t fit something, I tend to run to one extreme or another. It leads to wildly unbiblical conclusions.

We do this with a ton of stuff:

– Predestination Vs. Free Will

– My Politics Vs. Your Politics

– Effort Vs. Legalism

– Grace Vs. Truth

– Receiving the Rebellious Vs. Religious

– Evangelism Vs. Discipleship

– Technology/Fog Machines Vs. Hipsters/Beards

 

People often are incapable of holding two extremes in balance together, but this is exactly what the Christian is meant to do: to hold such amplitudes in tension that a third unpredictable way is created. It’s almost never either/or, but usually both/and. This is why most mature Christians have hard-to-pin political views and theological opinions — because no Christian should ever be a carbon copy clone.

All that to say: Prayer is just as much trusting God as it is moving forward into where God is working. There is NO false split between prayer and action. The godly person prays AND acts.

It’s like the single girl who is patiently waiting for a man to fall out of the sky. Patience doesn’t mean “Let go and let God.” It also means getting into a scene where meeting a godly guy is more likely to happen: and that’s totally okay.

We are active participants in the Story of God, and we’re called to ask just as much as we’re called to act.

If you read verses like Philippians 4:6 about prayer and petition, there is a ton of context that sandwiches these verses which talk about action. Prayer is our conduit to the Giver of all our strength to move from step to step: to be thankful, to repent, to learn, to be restored to what is better.

 

A quick story: I was once ripped off on eBay way back when there was hardly any protection. This was a time when people still mailed each other cash and hoped to get their stuff. I had won some cards (from a game called Magic The Gathering, and I know how nerdy that is), but the dude never sent them.

In my very basic understanding of Christianity, I prayed for God to deal some justice on this guy. And I also emailed this dude almost everyday. A couple months later, the guy writes me an email apologizing like crazy saying how guilty he’s been feeling: and he sends me not only the cards I bid on, but a bunch of extra goodies.

Now I could’ve waited all “patiently” in denial or I could’ve stalked this dude’s house: but I prayed and I acted as godly as I knew how. Both things brought a result that couldn’t have come any other way.

 

Yet prayer isn’t just about what we do. I also totally believe that God hears us and answers. In some mysterious way, God dips His hand into history based on our meager prayers. Think of that: the God of the universe who created everything and is sustaining your molecules right now also has His ear to your voice. Prayer somehow touches the space-time fabric around us when God weaves a tapestry surrounding our requests. The more I think of it, the more I shudder and shrink.

While we contribute to the story of God, ultimately it’s His story and He is writing it while we are still free to choose.

An answered prayer is almost like God saying, “Yes, I approve of that edit to the story.”

Some would say, “I pray because it changes me,” but again, that’s the false dichotomy. Prayer both changes us AND affects God. If you ask me about free will or foreknowledge or predeterminism: I don’t know. My head can’t fit a galaxy. We don’t know how to reconcile both extremes because of our tiny human minds, but somehow God forges a paradox into an unknowable reality.

So pray. Pray like God can change you and your situation. Roll your sleeves up because you’re also part of the story. And if He doesn’t answer the way you’ve been asking, keep praying, and move.

— J.S.