Prayer III
Q: Does God answer all our prayers?
A: Yes, as long as our requests are not selfish or harmful.
Q: Does God give us whatever we ask for?
A: No.
1) Story just to make the point: A man is in a hurry to make a business flight home for his son’s birthday. In his rush, he bumps into an elderly lady in the airport and knocks her belongings all over. He does the right thing and stops to help pick her up things. While doing so, he pleads with God for help so he can still make his flight. As it turns out, he gets to the gate one minute late and misses the flight and his son’s birthday. Later in his hotel room, he gets angry with God because a) he stopped to do the right thing and b) he prayed for God’s help to make his flight, but God still let him miss it! The next morning he gets the newspaper with his coffee and reads about the disaster the night before. His flight never made it. It crashed.
I’m not sure if the story is true but it makes the point, which is how do we know what the right decision is when we pray?
2) Other problems with “our will,” not God’s:
What if the person we prayed for happened to be praying for something completely different or opposite than what we prayed for? Who, in your opinion, should God listen to?
Sometimes, we think we are the only ones in the world praying, but there are at least 500 million prayers are going up to God at any given time, every day. How should God balance all these requests, especially since almost all prayers each cause interactions with many other people people of free will who or may not be praying themselves? Shouldn’t God take these millions of secondary and tertiary effects into consideration before he grants just one prayer?
Yet, I am happy to report that God has infinitely perfect computing skills, so he can still respond to all prayers, perfectly, taking into account all our needs and weaknesses. Because he’s God.
Q: What about prayers when someone close to you is dying?
A: Our goal is to graduate from here and go to heaven. Why would you want to stop that?
Discussing this topic with a 4th grade CCD class, one young girl said her Aunt Margaret was dying and she had been praying for her but nothing happened and she was still dying. Her prayers weren’t doing any good!
I gently reminded her that the goal of every human is to graduation from here and go to Heaven, which will be much better than here, so we shouldn’t want to keep her from heaven for too long!
Then I asked what her Aunt Margaret’s illness was. It was cancer. I confirmed that indeed all prayers are answered but not always the way we want them to. However, we are guaranteed our prayers will make a difference. I asked how much pain her Aunt Margaret usually had, on a scale for 1-10. She guessed a 8. I said what if God used her prayers to bring her Aunt Margaret’s pain down from an 8 or 9 down to a 6. Would she stop praying for her? Of course, not, so don’t stop!
Then the whole class prayed for her Aunt Margaret.
Q: Can prayers be retroactive?
A: Yes. Prayers are a spiritual activity; they are not subject to finite laws. Consequently, prayers are not governed by time. If we pray for someone after the fact, God would know that you were going to pray and can apply your prayers accordingly.
If you decided not to pray, then God would know that, too, and would not apply any prayers because you never said any.
Q: What did Jesus say about prayer?
A: Matthew 6:5-8 “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men … but when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen.”
John 4:23–24 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those wo worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Luke 21:36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Matthew 5:44–45a (also see Luke 6:28) But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 6:5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:6 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
Matthew 6:9-13
Pray like this:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we also have forgiven those who trespassed against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Q: In the Lord’s Prayer, what does he say about “God’s will”?
A: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” This is our prayer for us. We are praying for God’s will in our lives. We are striving to bring God’s will, just as it is in Heaven, to earth.
Q: What did Jesus do after he asked God about avoiding his torture and being nailed to a cross?
A: At the end of his praying, he ended by saying, “Yet, may Your will be done, not mine” (Mk 12:36). Shouldn’t this be at the end of all our prayers? We will be more successful.
Q: Have you heard the prayer parable of the boat and the dock?
A: Think of us being the boat and God is the dock. When we pray, we throw a rope to the dock (God), but then too often we try to pull the dock to us. The goal is to learn to pull ourselves to the dock.
Next week: Prayer Final
Comparing the Ten Commandments to the Lord’s Prayer
Praying for the dead
Intercessory prayer to Mary and the Saints
What is the meaning of praise, glory, and worship.
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