Why Do We Pray?
Three hikers were lost in December on Mt Hood and a search began for or any signs of Anthony Vietti, 24, and Katie Nolan, 29. A third hiker who was with them, 26-year-old Luke Gullberg, was found dead Saturday the 12th. I read that the families gathered on the mountain and prayed. They were all Christians.
Dennis Simons, a chaplain for the fire and police departments in the city of Sandy, Oregon, spent time with the families of all three on Sunday. “They’re grieving and hoping. There are thousands of people around the world praying that Katie and Anthony will be found alive,” he told reporters, holding back tears.
Finally, after many days , the search and rescue ended. The families didn’t become doubters, but still maintained their belief in God and the power of prayer.
We are told that we should pray so that we can know the will of God. If the will of God is for these three hikers to die on Mt Hood, then what good does it do to pray for their safe return? When two football teams clash, each side prays for victory, yet only one can win. Does the losing team stop praying the next time they play or do they once again stop to pray for victory? If you put your hand on a hot burner, you learn not to do that again. How come we don’t stop praying? Many Jews found themselves in concentration camps and suffered the most horrendous circumstances, yet didn’t lose their faith in God. How come? Why wouldn’t they believe their God had abandoned them?
I just finished reading Stephen King’s novella “Ur.” The leading character buys a Kindle, and he somehow received a look-alike in pink called a Ur. One capability the Ur had was to give him the headlines for dates in the future. He learns that a drunk driver is to be involved in an accident that kills his girl friend. He has three says to stop the accident, even though he will run afoul of the “paradox police.” The police ask him how in his arrogance he thinks he can change the future without understanding the consequences.
It didn’t cross your mind that one of the people on that bus might become a serial killer, someone who might murder dozens, including a child who would otherwise grow up to cure cancer or Alzheimer’s Disease. It didn’t occur to you that one of those young women might give birth to the next Hitler or Stalin, a human monster who could go on to kill millions of your fellow humans on this level of the Tower. It didn’t occur to you that you were meddling in events far beyond your ability to understand!”
The idea that our fates are fixed doesn’t sit well with me. I assume we have free will and can design the life we want for ourselves. But, if things are fixed, that we have a time to die when our number comes up, why pray?
What I’m asking is If God is in control, why do we pray?
One answer I found is that I didn’t know how to pray. Judy@sundayschoollessons.com said there are five kinds of prayers:
- The first type is the prayer of praise
- The second type is the prayer of thanksgiving
- The third type is the prayer of confession
- The fourth type is the prayer of supplication, or asking for help.
We ask God to keep us safe, to give us courage in tough times, or to give us the things we need to be strong and healthy. God always wants to hear from us when we are afraid or in trouble and need help.
- The fifth type of prayer is the intercessory prayer, where we ask God to care for another person or party
No where in the list is the thing that I thought people prayed for. Prayer is like meditation. In the quiet time when we pray, we become more aware of God’s will. Perhaps the reason I most like is this oneof his creation.
As we align with God’s will, it’s okay to keep calling out to God on behalf of others and ourselves. In fact, it’s more than okay: God expects us to. In Isaiah 43, God speaks comfortingly to Israel in their time of trial, exile, and need, promising deliverance and salvation, but he adds: “Yet you have not called on me, Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel” (Isaiah 43:22).
“We of the twenty-first century are so like the people in Isaiah’s time,” says Mary Anne. “We want God to care for us and meet our every need, without ‘wearying ourselves’ to praise him, to walk in intimate dependence and to pour out our hearts to him for others as well as for our own needs. We are ‘too busy’ to pray (or too tired), yet Jesus modeled a lifestyle of prayerful dependence, fellowship and intercession. The God who is ‘in control’
I’m convinced that there is something bigger than me and I choose to call that higher power God. It helps me to pause now and again to ask questions that those around me don’t supply ready answers to.
Keep up the good work, your Father in Heaven is pleased with your desire to know His will.
Well thanks TF. Sometimes things just puzzle me.