Misconception Number 2:
God already knows all that we are going to say, so what is the point of saying
it?
I think that a lot of us tend to
look at prayer as just a mental exercise that we are supposed to go through
because . . . well . . . because that’s what Christians do. So we do
it! But somewhere deep down, it feels like a waste of time. It
feels like an unnecessary task because God already knows what we are
thinking.
Deep down, we think things like, “Well, God knows what we need” … or “He knows
I’m sorry” … or “He knows what I am going through and how to best handle it” … “so
then why do I have to say it? What’s the
point?”
Or
“He knows the choice that I have to make and He’ll open the door when it’s
time. I don’t really have to pray about it. What difference would it make?”
Or
we tell someone that we’ll pray for them and then when we forget, we say,
“Well, God knew what I was going to pray.” And we comfort ourselves with
that, feeling like it will all work out fine because God knows our
thoughts. And our thoughts are just as good as our prayers.
Or are they?
I
challenge you to find one verse that says that God responded to “their
thoughts.” While God does hear them, our thoughts do not call Him into
action. It is our prayers that do. And this is because we have a
right to pray or not, to ask God’s help or not.
If we convince ourselves that God will hear and respond to our thoughts, we
don’t take the time to really pray. We go through the motions at
mealtimes, “Lord, thank you for this, thank you for that, help us with this,
provide us with that, thanks for this food. Amen!” And we feel
good, like we’ve done our job for the day.
But we don’t really pray. We don’t really get on our knees and
humble ourselves before God. We don’t run to Him first when something
comes up. He’s our back-up plan. Just like our casual approach to
Bible reading, we have a casual approach to prayer.
We offer half-hearted attempts before meals or while we are falling asleep, and
we feel like we have honored God. But we should not think that since God
knows that we are thankful, we don’t have to express it in prayer. And we
cannot just sit back and think “God knows my needs” and think that He’ll meet
them without being asked. That is presumption. It’s not prayer.
Philippians
4:6: “Do
not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
We
are never told to just “think it.” But
we are told again and again to pray about it.
And I think it’s because prayer really does make a difference. God waits for our prayers to call Him into
action because He has given us the right and responsibility to seek Him or to
go our own way, to include Him or ignore Him.
I
think this is how He operates in this life, in general. With mankind’s cooperation. Through our prayers and obedience.
In
Job 42, it was God’s
Will to forgive Job’s friends for what they said about God. Yet, God asked Job to pray that He would
forgive them. He waited to forgive them
until Job prayed. This is God
accomplishing His Will with mankind’s cooperation.
I
think there are times and ways that God’s plans hinge on us. And this is the way He made it, giving us a
certain amount of influence and responsibility.
But if we always think He will do whatever He wants regardless of us and
our prayers and obedience, we do not stop to consider how important and
necessary our obedience and prayers are, that God might just be waiting on us
to get His Will accomplished.
