Have you bothered God recently? I do it all the time, in fact I imagine that the almighty is fed up with my yakking (not really, I know that God is far more gracious than me).
Prayer has been in the news recently, with President Trump holding prayer meetings asking God to bless the actions of war against Iran, to which the Pope responded by proclaiming that “God rejects the prayers of leaders and individuals who wage war”. This got me thinking, I imagine that God hears a lot of contradictory demands from different groups of people, all insisting that God is not only listening, but is actively on their side. If I was God, I’d certainly have a headache.
Mother Teresa observed that “prayer changes us, and we change things”. This of course can either be a good or a bad thing, depending on what you pray, and how convinced you are that God agrees with you. But, perhaps, prayer isn’t just about yakking to God. Perhaps prayer is also about listening, and isn’t so much about making demands on God, as it is about changing something within us.
The theologian and philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, argued that “the function of prayer is not to influence God but rather to change the nature of the one who prays”. To which I’d add that “you are what you pray”, and our idea of God so often reflects that, so we’d better be careful.
If all this is giving you a headache, perhaps its best just to have a bit of quiet time with God. Prayer can be many things, but fundamentally it is a relationship with the divine. And yes, prayer does change us. Imagine using the following passage from 1 Corinthians 13 as a daily prayer or mediation:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
How would that change us?
Revd Dean Akrill
