Thursday, I Lent
(Matthew 7)
A man commented last week that it is useless to pray that God end a war. He thinks that war involves so many people that God could not have much say regarding its outcome. The man did not say that God couldn’t answer prayers of personal needs, but many believe that is so. In fact, a whole theological movement known as “process theology” believes that God is powerless over events in people’s lives. Then why pray at all, we might ask?
Process theology adherents might answer that prayer at least lifts a person’s thought from worrying about a problem to imagining a solution. Psychologically, prayer facilitates positive thinking. Such reasoning, however, hardly convinces us. If we needed to think about solutions, we could do that without directing our hearts to God in prayer. In the gospel, of course, Jesus does not seem to doubt that prayers will be answered. “Ask and it will be given to you,” he says confidently.
Those who doubt the value of prayer to achieve its purpose have an inadequate conception of God. God knows what we need before we express our need, even before we exist. He wants us to pray, however, so that our relationship of faith may strengthen. He will respond to our prayer by providing for our need. His answer may not conform exactly to what we ask for, but it will see us through the difficulty. Once a mother brought her son who was dying of a brain tumor to Lourdes for healing. Shortly after their return, the boy died shortly. When the mother was asked if she felt God had let her down, she said, no, the experience of praying with so many faith-filled people at Lourdes strengthened her to accept her son’s death. The boy died in God’s grace and the family lives in assurance of God’s love for them.
