I’ve noticed sort of a pattern to my prayer life of the recent past. It seems that my prayers can only affect either the natural world or just the world around me – the people and things I know personally. Prayers that I’ve prayed that have had immediate results seem to be prayers that I ask God for – mostly on the behalf of others. I’ve prayed that a thunderstorm passes when my children are scared by it, and immediately, the storm begins to subside. I went on a walk yesterday with two of my sons, Orion and Luke, and we heard a bird in a tree with a unique song. We couldn’t see the bird, so I asked God if He could have the bird fly down from the tree so we could see what kind of bird it was and immediately a small bird swooped down from the tree and did a fly-by over our heads. (Not really landing at our feet for an in-depth inspection, but still.) Another time, a neighbor man was again always yelling at his sons. Fed up with his lack of love for them, I raised my hand (as the Jedi do their mind tricks) and I passed it over his general direction and simply said like a command, “Love your sons. Stop yelling and them, and go and play with them.” Within minutes, that father was doing something that I had never seen him do. He had become quiet, and instead of yelling at his sons while they rode their bikes or played ball in the driveway, I saw this father – who, in five years, I have never seen play with his kids – actually get on one of their larger kid bikes and ride around their yard with them. Then he got on one of their little skateboard scooters and scooted around with them up and down the driveway. All without yelling at his kids or even saying a word. Did I do that? Did I make that happen? Did God do that on my request?
What is the common thread? What super-power do I have, so I can use it again? I think, as I’ve written, that my prayers seem to be most effective and immediate when I pray for the benefit of others. In the storm, I got to be the hero for helping my sons not be scared and teaching them that God does answer prayer (and can answer immediately) just like He answered Jesus when He calmed a storm. I got to see the bird too, along with my sons. And, I got some peace and quiet – not having to hear the neighbor constantly berate his kids for a change, so I’m getting something out of these prayers for other people too. But I’m first and foremost praying for the benefit of others. My benefits from these actions are secondary.
Secondly, in all these instances, I’m not really caring about the outcomes. I’ve prayed each time knowing that God will do whatever He wants. If it didn’t stop storming, I would have just stayed with my kids and made them feel safe. If we couldn’t have seen the bird, my kids and I would have just continued on our walk, spending time together. If the neighbor would have kept yelling at his kids, I would have just tried to ignore him some more.
On the other hand, maybe I had faith like a mustard seed. Not really faith, but more just like the seed of a faith that God would do what I asked. Maybe that’s all you need. Maybe in these instances, I was coming to my Dad in heaven like a little child does to his good, earthly dad when they ask for something they want – not something big, just if they can play a video game that day, go outside to bounce on the trampoline, or if they can have a freezee pop for dessert or snack – asking with hopeful eyes that He’ll say yes to them. And, maybe in those instances, just barely believing God will do it, was enough.
I don’t know why God doesn’t answer all my prayers like this. It seems like I ask all my prayers nowadays this same way. In fact, when I ask for healing for my children when they get a cut or a bump, I never “ask” God to heal them. I always start off my prayer by putting my hand on their hurt and saying, “Thank you Dad for healing my son. Thank you for making his pain go away.” Then I take or “pick up” the invisible hurt in my hand and throw it away. (Interestingly, my middle son, Orion, stubbed his toes yesterday and his older brother, Gabriel was standing next to him. I prayed for Orion and since Gabe was there, I told him and taught him how to do this too. I put my hand on Orion’s foot and Gabe put his hand on Orion’s foot. I “picked up” the hurt and threw it out the open garage door. Gabe picked up the hurt and walked over to our garbage can in the garage, opened the lid, threw it in the garbage and closed the lid again.) When I pray like this, I just say it matter-of-fact. I claim it.
It’s kind of like a friend volunteering you for something that you didn’t really want to do, but now that it’s done, you kind of have to do it. I can imagine that one of my sons could say to someone, “For my birthday my Dad is going to take me to the zoo.” Now, maybe you had talked about it as one of many possibilities, but never decided for sure yet. Now, however, overhearing this, it’s obvious where your son wants to go and what he wants (and is expecting you to do) for his birthday, so you take him. You realize it’s what he wants so you do what he wants. You kind of have to now, or risk letting your son down. In his mind, it was a promise, though you never said as much.
In our minds too, we are taught and assume that our Dad in heaven is a good Dad and He will do whatever we ask in His Name. We are in His Name. We are adopted sons and daughters of His Family and therefore must share His Name. What’s He going to do, really, say No? Are we asking for the power to rule the world and become another killing dictator? Or are we asking for a new toy to play with? Are we asking for the betterment of society? Are we asking for something for someone else – for healing or protection? Why would God not honor a prayer by one of His children to protect and heal another one of His children?
There are times when I haven’t been able to heal people. When my prayers for them seem to bear little evidence or produce few fruit. There are times when the work of God seems to just bounce off people and maybe that’s because those people just refuse to believe it or accept it.
There have also been times when I’ve felt that I can envelope others in my faith like the Starship Enterprise can envelope another close starship in it’s own protective energy shield. There have been times when I believed that my faith could be used by others in concert with, or even in place of, their own. I’ve said or thought many times, that “I have faith for you.” Is that the trick? That I combine my faith with the faith of others and then we have enough to initiate a miracle from God – to affect a supernatural change in our environment? Is that why we must pray together because no one person has enough faith for themselves, or am I just weak? It seems to me in many, if not all these prayers, I’m the only one asking anything of God, but I, along with sometimes up to five people have benefited from the faith and the answer.
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