The
Promise of Prayer
By
Stephen Terry
Sabbath
School Lesson Commentary for March 4 – 10, 2012
“On
the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to
find a place of prayer.” Acts 16:13, NIV
Prayer is a paradox for the Christian. We present our
petitions to God and wait for answers. However, if God is all knowing, aren’t
our petitions simply telling Him something He already knows? And since He
already knows our needs, won’t He take care of them without our need to pray
about them?
Many Christians freely acknowledge this puzzling gap in
our understanding regarding prayer. Nonetheless, they also acknowledge
something else: prayer seems to work. As one author, Ellen White, put it, “Prayer
is the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven’s storehouse.” Steps to Christ, page 94. Sometimes,
that storehouse seems to open no other way. This also is a mystery as we do not
know why God would withhold His blessings, His healings when prayer doesn’t
take place. We also do not know why prayer is not 100% effective when offered.
Sometimes the healing does not happen. Sometimes the obstacle is not removed.
We can speculate but we have no ability to penetrate the mind of God.
We hear those who say that all prayer is answered even
if it is by “No.” They say that “No” is the answer we need. But to a parent
with a child dying in their arms, this is a cruel thought. To the person
struggling to put food on the table and desiring a better income, this is at
the least frustrating if not discouraging. A Christian who would tell these
longing sufferers that God wants to tell them, “No,” would appear to be a cold
person with a frozen heart. We cannot explain God in all His ways. Any attempt
to do so will only misrepresent Him and could drive others from the only source
of life and strength that can help as they deal with their suffering. Better we
admit that we do not have all the answers and join in prayer with the
sufferers. If possible, we should also do all in our power to relieve their
suffering.
Perhaps the greatest example of suffering can be found
in Jesus. He grew up in poverty. His country was occupied by a foreign power
that had no qualms about on-the-spot executions and torture. His church had
sold out the poor for earthly power and wealth. When He ministered to the needs
of the poor and suffering with healing and food, He was opposed. The very
church He had called out to glorify Him to the world plotted His death. His own
disciples did not understand Him and quarreled among themselves in His presence.
At the hour of His greatest need, they all deserted Him. The one who betrayed
Him regularly stole from the funds meant to support them. Yet, in spite of all
this, He consistently prayed both for Himself and for them.
The paradox of this is even greater in His case. Since
He was God incarnate, to whom was He praying? The Bible tells us, “For in
Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” Colossians 2:9, NIV
Was He praying to Himself? If God has
foreknowledge of our needs, would that foreknowledge not be even more certain
in His own case? What could be the possible purpose of praying for One who is
God? Perhaps He prayed for our example. Perhaps to also show that prayer works.
Perhaps to also show that prayer has sustaining power. While the pressures on
Jesus were immense, at one point causing Him to sweat drops of blood (see Luke
22:44), prayer sustained Him and enabled Him to move forward under that heavy
load.
If this is what prayer is all about, then we also will
find the greater value in prayer not in the video-game-like rewards we might
receive at the end of the level, but rather in the sustaining power that
enables us to persevere and endure. Does this mean that there are no material
rewards to prayer? No. I am thankful for each and every one of those rewards,
but it means that prayer may have a higher purpose than simply do an
incantation and “Presto!” the miracle happens. Even so, it is not wrong to pray
for those miracles. Whether it is feeding five thousand with a few loaves of
bread and a handful of fish or praying for someone facing a terminal illness,
miracles continue to happen. As I pray over the daily prayer list at Still
Waters Ministry, I see those miracles often enough to know they are real. But I
also see those that are not answered and wonder why.
Recently, I had the privilege of rejoicing over a young
woman who was on the prayer list and was now free of cancer. But I also had the
sadness of seeing a kind and beloved physician we were praying for laid to rest
who also had cancer. Why was one spared and not the other? I don’t know. Perhaps
one day, God will explain this to us. But will my faith survive if He does not?
Paul, the Apostle, struggled with this. He wrote to the Roman church, “One of
you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to
resist his will?’ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall
what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’
Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some
pottery for special purposes and some for common use?” Romans 9:19-21, NIV
In the end, it appears to simply be a matter of God’s sovereignty
to Paul. I find this troubling because it seems rather arbitrary. John tells us
“God is love.” (See 1 John 4:8 & 16) Is love capricious? The Bible tells us
that God is consistent. Through the prophet Malachi, God stated, “I the LORD do
not change.” Malachi 3:6, NIV This fits
with what Jesus said about Himself and God. In John 14, He stated that He is
the Truth and that those who have seen Him have seen the Father. Truth is
always consistent. So why is there apparent arbitrariness that troubled Paul
and also bedevils our understanding of God? Perhaps it is a matter of
perspective. We can find examples of this in our understanding of the world
around us.
Our understanding is limited by what we can discern.
Many of us know the story of the blind men who tried to describe an elephant.
One feeling the elephant’s trunk proclaimed the elephant to be like a hose.
Another feeling the elephant’s leg said it was like a tree. One who felt the
tail was sure elephants were a type of snake. A fourth who felt the elephant’s
side remarked on the animal’s similarity to a wall. Their perceptions, while
true to their perspective, were incomplete and failed to adequately explain the
animal. So it is with us. We are limited in our understanding by what has been
revealed and that revelation is in turn limited by God’s desire to reveal
Himself and our willingness to allow Him to do so.
If we have a dear friend who travels to a far country,
they might send us picture postcards they have chosen to share their
experience. Our understanding of that experience will be limited by what the
postcards contain. For instance, a picture of a pineapple field sent from
Hawaii might show us what a pineapple looks like, but it cannot reveal a
pineapple’s juicy flavor to our palate. We are limited in our understanding.
Because that understanding is limited and perhaps frustrating, we might decide
to not pick up further postcards from the mail. This would also limit our
ability to relate to our friend and what they are sharing. But if we instead
simply enjoy what they are sharing and set aside our questions about it until
the friend returns, our patience will be rewarded by greater understanding and
a closer relationship with our traveling friend. The experiences we choose to
accept as a part of that relationship can profoundly change our perceptions of
our lives and our spiritual relationships
When I was a teenager, I delivered newspapers as many
teenagers have also done. Where I lived in the small town of Port Orchard, there
were two papers that were delivered on Sunday mornings: “The Seattle Times” and
“The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.” I would get up out of a cozy bed at 2:00 AM
each Sunday to deliver one of those papers. One Sunday morning when I counted
my two bundles of papers left at the drop-off point, I was one short for the
route. The bundles were tightly bound by machine. One could not be removed
without cutting the twine that bound them. Somehow, someone at the paper had
miscounted the number of subscribers on my route. Not sure what else to do, I
prayed. In my youth, I naively expected God would multiply the papers in the
bundles as Jesus had done in feeding the multitude. I recounted. The bundles
still held the same number of papers. Disappointed, I prayed again.
Since I did my route in two parts, I decided I would
deliver the first bundle and then recount the second bundle when I returned. Perhaps
God needed more time. Draping the bag of folded papers over my bicycle
handlebars, I fully expected God to finally work a miracle in the number of
papers in the remaining bundle. However, when I rode back up to the drop-off
spot for my second bundle and recounted the papers, I was still one short. Feeling
let down by God, I sullenly completed my route, resolved to deal with the
inevitable irate customer and the chewing out I faced when they found
themselves without a paper. When all the papers had been delivered, I began my
trip home which took my by the last house on my route. Looking upat their porch, I was surprised
to see a Sunday paper in their paper box. I was astonished. I rode on clouds
all the way home, praising God. I got back into bed ready for the peaceful
sleep of the saints.
However, my faith in God began to waiver as I realized
that perhaps it was the other publisher’s Sunday paper that I saw in the paper box.
Sometimes people subscribed to both. Getting myself back out of bed, I rode all
the way back to the house, went up onto the porch and pulled the paper from the
paper box. It was the very issue I had been delivering. I could not explain it.
There appeared to be no way it could have gotten there. Who else but God and I
would have known which house on my route would be without a paper? I accepted
it as a miracle and thanked God for the blessing. It has shaped my understanding
of God to this day.
I believe that while we may feel that prayer is not
necessary because God knows all our needs, if we see no need to seek Him in
prayer, our relationship with Him will be diminished. Even though because our
vantage point is limited and His responses may seem arbitrary, we will miss the
blessings we might have otherwise received because prayer can and does
accomplish astounding things.
This Commentary is a Service of Still
Waters Ministry
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