Small Prayers and Small Faith

My favorite class this semester has been my General Epistles class. In the class, we're studying the books of James, 1 Peter, and 1 John. It isn't like most of the exegetical classes I have taken at Ozark. It's very laid-back and application-centered. It seems like every few minutes, my professor, Doug Welch, asks, "So what does this mean for how we live in the church?" Our goal is not just to discover what the biblical writers were saying to the first-century audience, but also to find what God is saying to the contemporary Christian church through them. In order to do this, one of our assignments is to give a short oral presentation about what each particular epistle says about some ministry in the church. A couple weeks ago, my friend Kylie gave a presentation on what James says about prayer, and it got me thinking about a few things.

I don't pray very well, and I've written about that before. I do believe that it is an area I have grown in a lot over the past year, but when I look at the E.M. Boundses and Brother Lawerences of the world, I see that I still have a long way to go. In James, we see how closely prayer is related to faith, which suggests that my faith is not where it should be because my prayers aren't where they should be. For example, in James 5:14-16, James instructs the sick to call for the elders so that they can come and anoint them with oil and pray for their healing, and he writes, "And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up." Of course, praying for the sick is a common (and good) practice today, but how often do we honestly believe that our prayers will be answered in miraculous ways? Kylie pointed out that when we pray for the sick, we often say something like, "God, please help Grandma Biddy and heal her of her sickness, but we just pray that your will be done." It's like we work an escape clause into our request. We're afraid that God won't heal Gradma Biddy, so we use a vague request that God's will be done as a safety net. Then, no matter what, our prayer is answered as we asked--if God heals Grandma Biddy, that's great, but if he doesn't, then that must mean it wasn't his will. (Granted, Jesus instructs us to pray that God's will be done [Matt. 6:10], but I don't think he meant this as a way to "back him up" so that he doesn't fail in answering our requests.) Not only that, but we often don't even pray that God will directly heal a person, but instead we pray, "God, please be with the doctors and work through them to bring about healing." As if the God who gave sight to the blind and raised the dead is unable to cure a case of cancer on his own.

All of this is a demonstration on how we format our prayers to insure that God doesn't "fail." We're not sure how to deal with it if we pray big and bold and God doesn't come through, so the safe thing to do is to pray for something that will happen anyway. Many people, when they pray before a meal, will say something like "And please bless this food and let it nourish our bodies." Is this much of a prayer? Isn't food designed to nourish us? Am I praying in faith when I say, "Let this ham sandwich give me energy for the next few hours"?  I certainly don't mean to criticize those who pray like this, because since I can remember, I have prayed that same thing before every meal. There has to be something more powerful and significant about prayer, though.

Again, it all relates to faith. Do we really believe that God will answer our prayers. In James 5:17-18, James references Elijah, who was "a man just like us" who prayed that it wouldn't rain, and so it didn't rain for three and a half years. Then he prayed that the drought would end, and down came the rain. That kind of prayer is a lot different than me asking for my dinner to do what it does anyway. Elijah prays a prayer that changes things; I often pray prayers that maintain the natural order. Instead of having faith and then pulling up my prayers to match that faith, I end up pulling my faith down to match my petty requests. If I could pose the issue in a way that makes sense to all you World of Warcraft fans out there: if I have a Level 8 faith but am making Level 3 requests, I make my faith a Level 3 instead of making Level 8 requests.

When James is writing about how the unwise person should ask God for wisdom, he writes, "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the win. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does" (Jas. 1:6-8). We need to be praying prayers that stretch our faith, not ones that shrivel it up. So let's boldly and unapologetically offer "big prayers" to God. Let's pray for things that will require for God to actually act. "You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" (4:2b-3). We shouldn't ask for things out of selfishness and personal prosperity (cars, money, popularity, etc.) but we shouldn't be afraid to ask God for things that seem impossible or crazy, remembering that he is the Father who loves to give good gifts (Matt. 7:11).

Is this a scary proposition? I think so. We become afraid that, if we pray big and God doesn't answer how we want, then our faith will suffer. But we need to learn to continue to pray boldly, not being deterred just because we can't see what God is doing (Lk. 18:1-8). Unanswered prayer doesn't need to damage our faith, and it shouldn't be an excuse to water down our prayers.

This last Sunday, Mark Driscoll preached a pretty good sermon on prayer, so if you have 55 minutes to spare, you should get it on its podcast and check it out.

Unrelatedly, today I heard a song on the radio by Bruno Mars called "Just the Way You Are." It's all about how he thinks that the girl he's singing to is beautiful just the way she is. She sometimes doesn't feel like she is, but he loves her just as she is. How nice of you, Bruno Mars. As I was listening to the song, I became curious about something, so I went and watched the music video on Youtube, and my suspicions were confirmed. The girl in the video is very attractive. Not just to Bruno Mars--any single guy would probably jump at the chance to spend time with her. I feel like the point of the song would be better communicated if the actress in the video didn't look like a model. Of course  you don't want her to change when she looks like that, Bruno. They should have casted a woman that was a little more "normal" looking: maybe a little pudgy, with slightly crooked teeth and and oddly shaped nose. But I guess that's why no one hires me to direct music videos.

Today (Wednesday) is the first time that the Cincinnati Reds will play in a postseason game since I was seven. I hope you're all as excited as I am.