"Does our prayer change things," is a funny question. Really. It is. It's a question about the utility of asking God for things. Is it any use? Would I have gotten what I wanted even if I hadn't asked God? How much influence do I really have with God?
I have a suspicious feeling that if we really understood what prayer was about, we wouldn't ask such questions. We ask because we want to know if we should keep doing it, but God has already told us in his word to do it, to cast our cares on him, to petition him and make all kinds of requests. The Bible says to do it, but for some reason we're still asking, "What's the point?"
If I had a granddaughter who went around discussing with people if there was any point in her asking me for money, I'd be offended. I'd start to suspect that she was only interested in what she could get out of me instead of our relationship. And if one day I gave her $5, and then she went off and began to tell her friends, "I think I got $5 because I had good manners at Grandma's house," or "I got $5 because I asked for it," or "She gave me this money, so I'd visit her again," I would be totally hurt. Doesn't she know I love her? Doesn't she know that's why I gave it to her? The goal of our relationship isn't money at all.
Likewise, the object of prayer isn't to change things. It's about joining hands with the one who changed everything. The stuff of life—our getting that appointment or surviving a family gathering or having a successful surgery or making it through a particularly tough parenting stage—is like the backdrop to God and me onstage conversing. It matters, yes. It's part of the play. It provides the scenery behind which God pursues me, I argue with him, I run away, he chases, he saves, he woos, and eventually we join hands to conquer the world with many other scenes where I try to jerk away from him again.
The backdrop, the stuff of life matters because without it, there would be no setting for this drama, but the driving action of this play isn't the changing of scenery. It's God pursuing.
Does our joining with God make any difference to this play?
Yes. The joining together is what the play is all about. Together changing things.
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This reminds me of crossing the street nineteen years ago to escort my four year old neighbor safely across the street to my house. He asked, "Aunt Susie, when will I get to cross the street without holding your hand?" I answered him and, later, wrote his question in my Bible.
As God's children, we will never be able to navigate Life well without holding God's hand.