It is interesting, but not surprising, that often our approach to prayer is out of self-interest. Our need usually is what makes us think to pray. Not just our need, but often someone else’s need. Our laundry list is filled with names of people and conditions we want God to act upon. I’m not sure it’s a bad thing but, as Lewis reminds us, in our Lord’s Prayer all the petitions are preceded by the yearning for “thy will be done.” But how much time do we spend on that petition? It might be interesting to think of the Lord’s Prayer as a school lesson (it was originally offered in response to a question about how to pray) and that the point is we have to hear God on the first things before we can move on to the other things.
In fact, it might be an interesting thing to begin all of our prayers with the petitionary phrase – “Dear God, I’d like to hear you on the following concerns: my brother’s healing, my job interview, my decision at work.” None of it suggests that there is an agenda we need God to fill, but rather there is an unfolding mission of God that may or may not include the things on our list.
On top of all this, at the conclusion of his Efficacy of Prayer essay, Lewis asserts something troubling about our growing maturity as disciples and prayer-ers. He suggests that the more we grow in our faith the less chance that God will grant us our requests. Quoting a Christian acquaintance: I have seen many striking answers to prayer and more than one I thought miraculous. But they usually come at the beginning: before conversion, or soon after it. As the Christian life proceeds, they tend to be rarer. The refusals, too, are not only more frequent; they become more unmistakable, more emphatic. In his own words Lewis goes on to say, Meanwhile, little people like you and me, if our prayers are sometimes granted, beyond all hope and probability, had better not draw hasty conclusions to our own advantage. If we were stronger, we might be less tenderly treated. If we were braver, we might be sent, with far less help, to defend far more desperate posts in the great battle.
Now there’s a thought that might change our whole way of looking at things.
In fact, it might be an interesting thing to begin all of our prayers with the petitionary phrase – “Dear God, I’d like to hear you on the following concerns: my brother’s healing, my job interview, my decision at work.” None of it suggests that there is an agenda we need God to fill, but rather there is an unfolding mission of God that may or may not include the things on our list.
On top of all this, at the conclusion of his Efficacy of Prayer essay, Lewis asserts something troubling about our growing maturity as disciples and prayer-ers. He suggests that the more we grow in our faith the less chance that God will grant us our requests. Quoting a Christian acquaintance: I have seen many striking answers to prayer and more than one I thought miraculous. But they usually come at the beginning: before conversion, or soon after it. As the Christian life proceeds, they tend to be rarer. The refusals, too, are not only more frequent; they become more unmistakable, more emphatic. In his own words Lewis goes on to say, Meanwhile, little people like you and me, if our prayers are sometimes granted, beyond all hope and probability, had better not draw hasty conclusions to our own advantage. If we were stronger, we might be less tenderly treated. If we were braver, we might be sent, with far less help, to defend far more desperate posts in the great battle.
Now there’s a thought that might change our whole way of looking at things.
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