Expectations of Prayer

We’ve been talking about prophets, teachers, and sages, and how God communicates with humankind. 

We saw last week that about 25% of Americans in a Gallup poll claimed to have had a direct and certain message from God—either his voice that they’ve heard, or the message was manifested in a dream or in a vision. Even within our class, we had about the same percentage. But what about the rest of us? Why is God silent? No dreams, no visions, no voice? Maybe he’s trying to communicate, but if so it’s indirect and indistinct. 

Why do we want to hear from God anyway? What do we want him to tell us? We have, I think, deep in our soul the notion that hearing from God would benefit us in some way, put us on the right path, keep us on the straight and narrow, make our way plain, and somehow make life better, easier, less stressful, less traumatic, and less painful. In short, we’d be on God’s side—the right side, the good side, the winning side. We assume that God wants to communicate with us. We want to believe that God has a message for us that somehow will make our life better. 

But what if he doesn’t want to communicate? What if he doesn’t want to talk directly to us, doesn’t feel the need to force us to hear his voice? Jason has suggested to me that God is God and if he felt the need to communicate, he both could and would do so; that maybe it’s God’s plan to be silent. He does, of course, communicate when he wishes; but that seems to be infrequent, sparingly used, and not habitual. 

Maybe it’s God’s plan to be indirect, infrequent, and more communal rather than individual. Maybe we couldn’t be trusted with much too much information. Maybe we simply can’t handle the truth. Maybe fallen man would misuse God’s Word, God’s voice, God’s direct communication, and pervert it in some way, using it for selfish ulterior motives, for self aggrandizement, self promotion, self centeredness, self servingness, and all other kinds of selfishness which make God reluctant to share his voice with us. 

It is interesting that in the Bible, those who talked most with God seemed to have some kind of special ability, or they were a special case. Abraham was called the “father of the faithful.” Moses, God said, was “the meekest man who ever lived.” David was “a man after God’s own heart.” Solomon was “the wisest man who ever lived.” Jeremiah had words put directly into his mouth by an angel. Isaiah’s lips were touched by cold from the altar. And Daniel was a person so constantly in communication with God that even lions couldn’t deter his connection. 

I, for one, certainly don’t qualify for any of these categories. Maybe it’s simply that I’m not to be trusted to be a good steward of God’s information; that I’m too self-centered, too self-absorbed. When I think about communicating with God, I think about prayer—certainly our favorite and most utilized method of communication. Prayer and communication are almost synonyms. What do we expect from prayer? And what do we want to hear from God? 

Prayer has been a pillar of religion since the beginning of time. Yet Scripture says that we don’t know how to pray or even what to pray for. Nevertheless, we’re told to pray without ceasing and that the effectual fervor in prayer of a righteous wo/man can avail much. Jesus categorically stated that God will do anything that two or three people agreed to ask of him, and Jesus himself prayed often. When he responded to the disciples request to teach them to pray, he gave them the Lord’s Prayer. 

Paul said:

 Now in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;… (Romans 8:26) 

But if we do not know how to pray, or how to communicate effectively with God, if we’ve not learned how to pray, or for whatever reason are unable to pray, then it seems the Holy Spirit will pray on our behalf. The groanings are not of the Spirit—they are of the supplicant, unable to find the words to express himself or herself. Paul went on to say that the will of God is the overarching concept within the context of prayer:

…and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:27)

Jesus made this absolutely explicit in the Lord’s Prayer when he taught us to say “Thy will be done.” And in one of the most cited verses in Christian prayer, particularly in times of grief when people are too overwhelmed to pray, Paul makes the reassuring statement that:

… we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28) 

But it begs the question: Why do we need to pray and to communicate with God? If we don’t know how to pray and if we pray ineffectively, and if the Spirit will pray for us if we can’t find words, and if God is working behind the scenes for the good of all those who love Him, then why do we need to pray at all? Paul implies that indeed we don’t, because God will give us what we need:

 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

So on the one hand, if we want to pray we must learn how; but on the other hand, it seems we don’t need to pray at all since the Holy Spirit and Jesus pray for us anyway. Nevertheless, the disciples opted to learn how to pray and asked Jesus to teach them to pray and they were given the Lord’s Prayer. Perhaps the Lord’s Prayer is a pithy summation, a declaration, a mini-constitution as it were, of the kingdom of heaven. It encompasses all the pillars of community. All nine of the personal pronouns are plural. It is “our Father,” not “my Father,” “Give us,” not “Give me.” It is from first to last a communal prayer. 

But if our prayers are answered, how would we know it? The Book of Judges gives some guidance. When Gideon asked for authentication as the angel was communicating with him, Gideon’s response to the angel strikes a chord with all of us: 

 “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.” (Judges 6:13) 

This is the universal cry of man to God: “If you are with me, then why am I sick? Why did I lose my job? Why am I having trouble with my relationships?” Is it possible to be reassured by God as Gideon was? 

These past few weeks have been hard for our family and church. One of our elders came off nearly six weeks of ventilation and a medically induced coma. He had a severe COVID-19 infection and a harrowing brush with death. He is weak and wasted but mounting a comeback. He was prayed for nightly and mightily, even around the clock. 

Another church member died this week on a ventilator. He lost his battle. Same disease, same prayers, same faith community. Were the prayers for the first man more effective than they were for the second? Was one more worthy of healing than the other? What about the dear sister who died on the same day the brother died, having lost a short but painful battle with cancer? Different disease, same prayers, same pleading with God, same claiming of God’s promises. 

Can we make sense out of all these tragedies in our discussion about communication with God? I’ve heard loud and eager affirmation of God’s answering prayers for the elder who lived, but what about the other two? Why was God silent? 

What do we expect from God? What must we hear? If we have wrong expectations with regard to the outcome of prayer then we risk becoming disillusioned with God and our faith. Doubt sets in. But as we have seen, God uses doubt to build our faith. Indeed, faith is tempered in the crucible of doubt. God responds to our doubt with grace and compassion, as he did in the case of Gideon. 

But at the other end of the spectrum, the faithful Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in no doubt that God could save them from the fiery furnace. But they also acknowledged that God might choose not to do so. So strong was their faith in God that they would rather burn alive than bow to a false god:

 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we are not in need of an answer to give you concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods nor worship the golden statue that you have set up.”  (Daniel 3:16-18)

They had absolute faith in God but no expectations regarding the outcome of their prayer. In short, they were saying “Thy will be done.” They knew that what is always delivered when asked for, what is always found when sought, and what is always open when knocked is that “all things will work together for good to those who love God.” 

Prayer is to the soul what the autonomic nervous system is to the body. It regulates the function of our internal organs without our consciously having to control them. You don’t, for example, need to remind your heart to beat, and you don’t have to tell it to beat harder when you run up a flight of stairs. Usually, the autonomic system maintains your body in a state of relative rest, but in emergencies it releases adrenaline, a physical stimulant. 

Similarly, prayer is always working in the background. Communication with God is always working in the background and can be invoked by a spirit in crisis. It feeds and sustains that spirit—the inner light, the eternity set in every heart. It is automatic, spontaneous, perpetual, and soul-searching. Like the heart, it will rise to a higher level of output if we’re struggling to climb up some very steep spiritual stairs. It’s always working to maintain the health of the soul. And that is the one and only predefined product or function of prayer, just as the heart has only one predefined product or function—blood flow. 

Thus, the scriptural reference to our not knowing how to pray and the disciples’ request to be taught how to pray have to do with the output of prayer, the end product of prayer, what we expect out of prayer; not the method of praying, not whether we should kneel or stand or how many times a day we should pray. We need to learn (or maybe re-learn) the function, the end product, the outcome and the output of prayer. It is the health of the soul. 

In that sense prayer does indeed move mountains, it does indeed bring prosperity, it is indeed always answered—but only in accordance with God’s intended function for it, which is to keep the inner light lit, to see that faith will never be unfulfilled and that grace will never be misappropriated. Such being the power and the product of prayer, its effects should be anticipated on the soul, not on the body. 

Soul and body are linked in the same way that the heart and the intestines are linked with the brain. If the heart or the intestines don’t work, then the brain is affected. But the effect is not precisely predictable, it is not the proximate result of organ dysfunction. So too with prayer: Proper prayer focuses on the health of our soul. But because the soul is linked with the body, it can have secondary collateral effects on physical and emotional health.

But to believe that one can penetrate the secrets of God, to hear His voice and know the works of God, and above all, to have his power at one’s beck and call, is to believe in magic. God is not a magician in our service; we are in his service. Prayer is a way of living a life in communication with God. The prophet Micah was so frustrated about this he asked God hyperbolically, as though God was impossible to please: “How much prayer is enough for you to do what I want you to do?”…

With what shall I come to the Lord
 And bow myself before the God on high?
Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings,
 With yearling calves?   

Does the Lord take pleasure in thousands of rams,
In ten thousand rivers of oil?
 Shall I give Him my firstborn for my wrongdoings,
 The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (Micah 6:6-7) 

God begins to shed some light on what he means by “pray without ceasing” and to be in constant communication with him: 

 He has told you, mortal one, what is good;
 And what does the Lord require of you
 But to do justice, to love kindness,
 And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

Evidently, prayer is not as Micah perceived it, nor as we tend to perceive it. First and foremost, it is not about the individual supplicant. To think that it’s about you is to be caught in one of the most subtle ensnarements. Self-centered prayer that focuses on me and my needs, my health, my well being, my piety, my faith, and so forth subverts the real purpose of prayer. In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus distinctly avoided this trap by using the plural personal pronouns, as we mentioned earlier—”our,” “us,” and “we,” instead of “me,” “my,” and “I.” 

To live a life of prayer is to live a life in community with others, doing justice and loving mercy, not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of the community and the individuals in it. We are told to do so humbly, because humility is an impediment to selfishness. Self-centered prayer tends to leave us feeling like Micah: No matter how hard we pray, it’s never enough to get God to answer the way we want him to. But a focus on others, on our neighbors, removes the element of idolatry inherent in a self-centered prayer life. It makes us better people. 

Even Moses, the meekest man who ever lived (as God described him), couldn’t resist the temptation to harness God’s power. We are intoxicated with the possibility of calling 10,000 angels to our defense (primarily of our bodies, not of our souls). But communication with God is about our soul. It is about the outcome and end product from the connection with God. Moses asked the question we all want to ask God: 

 Now then, if I have found favor in Your sight in any way, please let me know Your ways so that I may know You, in order that I may find favor in Your sight. (Exodus 33:13)

God did not deny Moses his request directly. Instead, he said he would make his ways available to Moses by going with him:

 And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:14-16)

Then he asked the most common request of small-minded Man: “Show me, God, how powerful you are!”… 

 Then Moses said, “Please, show me Your glory!” And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion to whom I will show compassion.” He further said, “You cannot see My face, for mankind shall not see Me and live!” (Exodus 33:18-20)

We need to learn what to expect from our encounters and our communication with God—what he wants to disclose. We want disclosure in order to understand what God’s world is like and what our own world is like as well, and how best to navigate in it. But can God trust us with his voice, with his revelations, and with his communications? What do you expect from your prayers and from your communication with God? What should the end product of prayer be? And why so many different outcomes, even within our own church this week? What are your thoughts about communicating with God, and what to expect from that communication? 

David: I’d like to challenge one of the basic premises that keeps cropping up, that “God has a plan.” I think it is very important to address it because to the extent you believe that God has a plan it affects how you worship, your prayers, and your expectations of God.

By definition plans are time bound: They have a beginning and they have a goal, an end point. But God is eternal. Anything time-bound just doesn’t fit in an eternal setting. To me, God is simply goodness, and goodness has no beginning and no end. To the extent God has a plan, it is simply to continue Being who he is—that is, for goodness to prevail everywhere and always. 

Perhaps this should be a separate discussion topic, but I think the notion that God has a time-bound plan insinuates itself into our thinking about what God is like and how he acts, and if our basic premises are wrong, it has pretty significant consequences. 

Donald: It is an adjacent thought in relationship to our discussion this morning. Adventists are very clock-oriented. The Second Coming was based upon a whole schedule of time. We use phraseology such as “in God’s time,” so to think that God doesn’t think in matters of time would be quite disruptive to the way I think we’ve learned to come to know him through Scripture. Everything is in God’s time. We don’t know God’s time. Some have tried to determine what God’s time is—”The time of the end is soon!” and so on. It is no small thing—it’s really quite fundamental to our faith belief. 

C-J: I think time and its perception are relative. I’ve lived almost 70 years and it seems like I just woke up. The measurement on a calendar or how fast the day went or what was accomplished in a period of perceived spectrum of events really don’t matter. I think it’s a continuum and we’re only aware at any moment in time. I’m still living but when I’m dreaming, my awareness is subconscious, or in a separate domain. When I’m awake, what I call wakefulness, that is inclusive, just because the engagement is different; but I do believe that there is planning because there’s a purpose in the awareness. 

Now, if you believe in reincarnation, as I do, but not in the sense that I could come back as a worm (although God can do whatever he wants!) I think the intention is to gather a sensitivity to the Divine. In the creative process that we all have, whether making a cake or having children or working in a flower garden, there is a process. But if you ask me how much time I spent in any of that, or do I remember when I did that 20 years ago, it really doesn’t have relevance at this moment in time, or my perception of this moment. 

So I stand between the two realities: We live in the moment, but it’s perceived and it’s relative. I think all of it is supposed to point us to the experience of the Divine.

Donald: So is the concept of our spirituality linear, or is it circular?

C-J: I don’t think it has a limit of linear or circular. I think it exists in and of itself. If you take it in terms of the ether—what we call air—do I know where it begins or ends? No. Do I know its height or depth? No. But I engage in that even though I can’t see it or measure it from where I am here. But it’s experiential and it has meaning and purpose and it has a beginning and end in terms of science. 

But do I dwell on that concept or concepts? When I listen to people who are existentialist, I can stand in that line without any struggle, but as a person of Judeo-Christian belief, I can stand on that line too, because I’m concrete in this dimension. But I believe the whole picture is existential. 

Carolyn: I have been told that I have to ask—which is a part of praying—in order to receive. Not always do we receive, but I believe that when I ask for the Holy Spirit to come into my life, my heart, my soul, I believe that he’s there. And he’s there to help me and show me some of these pathways that seem so mysterious and far-reaching. But I think our God is there all the time. And he just wants the communication

Robin: It’s been hard for our church family, and I have (as always) lots of questions. But I have a finite mind, and I have a warped spirit right now so I no longer expect to understand everything. I think that’s when God says: “I know you won’t understand everything in your fallen state. That’s why I would like you to have faith.” And I know I have learned and experienced and I have seen others and I can say: “Life is not fair, but death is not the end.”

Reinhard: I look upon the things going on around us as a mystery. It is a mystery how and why God picks and chooses who will survive, who will suffer a long illness, who will only suffer a short illness, and so on. I think it’s not productive to think about it. Of course we wonder how God operates. It’s a mystery to us but God knows everything, from beginning to end. God is God. 

There are exceptions to the rule of mystery: For instance, Moses saw God face to face even though God said those who see him cannot live, and God warned Adam and Eve they would die the day they ate the forbidden fruit but they didn’t die (maybe spiritually, but not physically). Jesus also said that some people would see His Second Coming. 

The bottom line is as Paul said: 

 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

Life on this earth is very short. Whether we live 5 years or 100, we are going to appear before God and it is the life after that is the most important. Of course, how we live our lives on this earth can determine how we live after death. It depends on our relationship with God. 

Yes, life is a mystery, God is mystery to us. But as long as we keep our relationship with God strong we secure our lives in the hereafter.

Neldeson: I have a question—a very complicated question. When Jesus Christ died on the cross and his father accepted him because he died with faith, asking his father to receive him, did Christ know his father would save him?

Kiran: If he knew, then it wouldn’t be faith. If you know for certain that something is going to happen, then you don’t need faith. I believe he didn’t know but he must have had faith, knowing who this father is. So I think he took that risk. And that’s what faith is.

C-J: I agree. And I think that, as a practicing Jew, Jesus did believe. I think his relationship with God was active and in faith. Absolutely. I believe Jesus thought he would be received.

Neldeson: So don’t you think we should all try to have that faith, to trust him? The way he did?

C-J: Through the traditions of the faith that we’re born into, or that we embrace, or only one way?

Neldeson: Both ways. We were born into this world not knowing anything about God. And yet, as we get older, his teaching comes into play.

Don: That raises the question: Do we mature in our prayer life, in our communication with God, in a way that can establish faith rather than undermine it? So many people this week have raised the question: “Why this and not that? Why him and not her?” Is our prayer misguided? Or can we say that God answered prayers for him but didn’t answer prayers for her?

Donald: When I was very ill there were many parts of that journey that I could explore and try to come to understand. The way in which I have come to understand that is that we live in a war zone. And in a war zone, some people get hit, and some people don’t. And we live in a sinful world. And that’s what this is. It’s very unfortunate that some people get hit. But we don’t live in a perfect world, and that’s the only answer I can come up with, but with so many people in your church body affected this week by the consequences of life, how do you put that together? We’ve talked before about anointings: What’s the purpose of an anointing? Does it change things? Is it supposed to change things?

David: I think prayer is misguided if it expects an answer; in particular, if it expects a specific answer to a specific question. I don’t think prayer is misguided—even if it does ask specific questions—provided it does not expect an answer. Why is it not misguided? Because it acknowledges the existence of God. By praying, you accept implicitly the existence of God. 

I believe that’s what God wants and that it has an impact—just not necessarily a specific impact we may be praying for. The acknowledgement of God alone unquestionably has an impact and I think it’s essential that we do acknowledge God. But to teach and to believe that prayer will lead to specific answers to specific questions is seriously misguided, it seems to me. 

Bryan: I’m of the same mind. To me, that is the trap of prayer. The trap is sprung when prayer begins to ask for specific things. When you set the trap, in prayer, asking for specific things, then to me, it leads to disappointment, because those specific things are not answered. There’s been a shift in my praying in that I’m now simply grateful for the things I have, the blessings I have, grateful for the things in my life. Giving thanks for those things without asking for specifics is much easier for me than wondering why one person dies, his prayer answered specifically, while another lives, her prayer seemingly answered. Simply being grateful for the blessings God bestows day to day, doing the best with what you’ve got day to day, springs the trap. 

As for the timeline: Obviously, heaven exists outside of time. I think in heaven, time is irrelevant, but as humans we live in a time-based framework. Thus, religion has been very interested in trying to set timelines on God’s behavior or timelines on when he’s coming, what he’s doing, how long it is going to take, which again leads to disappointment. So, my prayers now have changed to simply being thankful for what I have day to day, what my family has from day to day, without asking for specifics and therefore, for me, not causing any disappointment for things I’ve asked for but didn’t get.

Neldeson: Amen to that!

Don: Doesn’t that let God off the hook? Is a God that won’t send 10,000 angels when you call for them a weak God?

Bryan: To me, that doesn’t negate his power or glory, but who am I to ask him for specific things? I’m just grateful for the existence he’s given me and I try to do the best with what I’ve got. It does not mean he’s any less powerful. He simply exists in a different realm, one that I don’t understand. I’m just grateful to have what I have, and I give thanks to him, because I think that’s where it comes from.

Kiran: About 50% of people who get married get divorced, yet still people want to get married. We know everybody dies, yet we still fight death. We know that of all the kids who go to football practice in school only 1 or 2% make it to the NFL. But they still try. I think we all started that way. The three Hebrew worthies in Daniel weren’t worried about death. That is a maturity I think we’re all supposed to aspire to. 

Every time I contemplate on death, I have two fears: (1) I am scared of dying and (2) I worry what will happen to the people who love me and depend on me. My dad died when I was 18. Did my world collapse? It did, but am I fine now? I am. But would I want the same outcome for my child? I would not. Why not? Because there is a part of me that doesn’t trust that at the end of the day all things will work for the good of my child. 

I think that’s the problem. Knowing that no matter what the outcome, at the end of the day the unseen God will work everything for the benefit of the loved ones that we leave behind, is something that I have to come in terms with. And if I do, then I would welcome death any day. But the fact that I can’t do that is one difficulty that I have. 

Is there a plan for me? Yes, definitely. God has a plan for every person ever born. He wants all of us to be with him one day. But is it like the Hindu religion plan where the Creator wrote everything on your forehead and you’re just following that? No, I don’t think so. I think the struggle between thinking about ourselves and understanding that everything we have is a gift from God is the evolution we have to get through. It’s very hard.

Pushpa: So, there are two things that I get. First is, should we ask for things in prayer? We should ask for things in prayer. It’s not that God doesn’t know our life. He knows what we need, what we want. He already knows what we’re going to ask even before we ask it. We can ask, but then we need to have faith whatever the answer is, whether it’s a no or a yes or it’s silence. 

Second, why do prayers seem to work for some but not for others? Being a nurse, when I see a patient my educated guess can see what the quality of the life will probably be like given the patient’s disease and condition. So it’s not that God did not answer their prayer but that maybe God answered it more mercifully because he knows what the quality of life would be. 

Yes, at the church, we all wanted our brothers and sisters to live, we were hoping for a miracle, but God in his wisdom knows what to do. All of us were heartbroken when we found out that our sister with cancer had passed away, but knowing what I know about her disease process, it’s God’s mercy that maybe he did not want her to live and have that quality of life. We had to pray for her, but at the end of the day, we also have to accept whatever God’s wisdom decides.

C-J: For me, it comes down to “None of this belongs to me. Thy will be done.” I don’t need to know why. I don’t need to know what time. I’ve had a lot of loss in my life and I used to mourn that loss. I questioned it: “What is happening here?” But when I released it as it doesn’t matter, it never belonged to me—whether it’s a person, a place or a thing—it was liberating. 

Donald: I think we would be remiss if we didn’t introduce a word I think is adjacent to prayer, and that’s assurance. There’s something about prayer that lets you know that you’re secure. Whatever the outcome is, it’s like when you were young and your parent would put an arm around you. That’s really what we’re asking for—just an arm around us. We don’t know what the outcome is, but we just need to be safe in the arms of Jesus. 

Michael: I think Dr. Weaver make a strong claim for the effect of prayer and (as I understood it) that the effect is on the spirit or the mind. I wonder if there has ever been a study measuring the effects of prayer?

Don: One study I’m aware of, done at the Mayo Clinic, had a community of Christians come in to the hospital to pray randomly for people undergoing open heart surgery. A control group of similar patients had no prayers said for them. The group that was prayed for did worse following surgery than the group that was not prayed for. It was speculated that they discovered they were being prayed for and that made them fear they were so much at risk that they needed prayer.

But there have been some positive studies as well. I can’t quote them off the top of my head, but their small numbers and weak statistical strength have led people to say it is both bad religion and bad science to try to study prayer in such a way,

Carolyn: The way I see prayer is as the communication we have with the Lord. It’s just like a father or a mother with a child. When the child is hurt and want the security of knowing that he’s going to be okay, he runs to the parent and asks for some type of reassurance. I think this is the communication we have with the Lord. We always know we can turn to him and he will give us reassurance as we would reassure our child, who then just runs off happy because you took care of it. 

This is the way I approach I prayer. I can turn to the Lord in desperation, but I’m expecting him to at least give me the reassurance that he’s there and he’s kissed me better and I can go off with the knowledge and the lightheartedness to know that he’s in control and I don’t have to worry about it.

Robin: I think we have to remember also the example of Jesus in Gethsemane—how his humanity overwhelmed him and he was experiencing distress and fear and doubt but then he said: “Thy Will and not mine.” We can question why this person died while I live. We don’t know the answer yet. But at the end of Paul’s life, he said: “I’ve run my race.” Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time to be born, and there is also a time to die. Neither of those things are under our control. But can we trust the one who does control? So we look for answers when sometimes we’re unable to understand the answer. That’s where faith has to pick up.

David: Usually a child expects its parent to give him or her a hug when s/he’s hurting. A child in hospital will expect a hug from his or her parents as s/he lays dying of cancer. That is what we should expect of God. It’s as simple as the expectation that you will be given a hug when you need it. And certainly I guess at death (we’re all more or less afraid of death) we need a hug. The assurance I think Donald is talking about is that we will get that hug. That hug will be there for us at death

Reinhard: Sin destroyed our perfect health and our eternal life on earth. Prayer (and meditation) strengthens us even before we get any answer from God. It makes us feel closer to God. We here all seem to be in good health. It is a mystery why some people, even very religious people, are called away when bad people are spared. Maybe God gave them a chance to repent at some point in life. Maybe we will know the answer some day, when we see God. 

The important thing in this life is to remain strong in him and to let his will be done. We just need to keep our faith strong. We still experience blessings every day when we pray for God to protect us. Leave it in God’s hands and God will do the rest for us.

Pastor Giddi: I also believe that prayer is to change God—not the eternal destiny that God has decided, but like Hezekiah, who was supposed to die:

 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your house in order, for you are going to die and not live.’” Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying,  “Please, Lord, just remember how I have walked before You wholeheartedly and in truth, and have done what is good in Your sight!” And Hezekiah wept profusely.  And even before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard, the word of the Lord came to him, saying,  “Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David says: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I am going to heal you. (2 Kings 20:1-5)

I believe that prayer can change what God does in our life, change something that God has planned.

Don: That’s a bombshell at the very end of the discussion! It is something to think about.

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