"If God knows everything, what’s the point of prayer? Does a person with many praying friends stand a better chance of physical healing than one who also has cancer but with only a few people praying for her? Does prayer change God, or change me?"
“In the process of writing, however, I have come to see prayer as a privilege, not a duty. Like all good things, prayer requires some discipline. Yet I believe that life with God should seem more like friendship than duty. Prayer includes moments of ecstasy and also dullness, mindless distraction and acute concentration, flashes of joy and bouts of irritation. In other words, prayer has features in common with all relationships that matter.“~Philip Yancey, Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 15-17.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
My latest (audio) read: Yancey's Prayer
Have you read a good book lately? The questions that Yancey raises are the ones that I'd like to ask. I especially appreciate the direction that he takes on tackling the subject -- life with God is a friendship and therefore he's not offering a "how-to" guide. Otherwise, how not-far could he get? My friendship with God can't be exactly the same as yours, and thus His approach with me may not be the same as His with you.
2 comments:
Yancey's questions are my questions too.
However, I'd also like to ask this:
"Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?"
If prayer is a "privilege", then should this privilege make a difference"? And where is it?
If life with God is a "friendship", should this friendship help to make a difference in my life, or my sick friends' lives?
To me, prayer does make a difference to something or someone. Instead of not expecting something to change after a prayer (if this is what Yancey is advocating), I think we should firstly be sensitive to (or look for) the difference prayers made to us, then the target we're praying for. Prayer does make a difference by changing how I look at things, esp how I look at those things (that I'm praying for) came about as I requested God to intervene.
Thanks for the questions and giving me an opportunity to clarify.
> Instead of not expecting something to change after a prayer (if this is what Yancey is advocating)...
I only just finished listening to disk 2 of 10. But no, Yancey's not advocating that; his book is NOT about that.
>Prayer does make a difference by changing how I look at things, esp how I look at those things (that I'm praying for) came about as I requested God to intervene.
Of course it does. Prayer aligns our perspectives to God's. Prayer allows us to join in God's presence... in the lives of those we pray for, and witness His presence, His care, His deeds....
Praying for others lets me realize how much God has been caring (whether in the form of acting or even of abstaining from acting). Once in a while, I get frustrated and have the nerve to think that I care about others more than God does. One time, I was reminded that He died for them, I didn't.
I'll post again as I continue with the CDs. Stay tuned!
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