This is the title of a chapter in Philip Yancey's book "Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference" and a question I have fretted over for a long time.
Here's the basic problem, as stated by Origen, one of the early fathers of the Christian church.
"First, if God foreknows what will come to be and if it must happen, then prayer is in vain. Second, if everything happens according to God's will and if what He wills is fixed and none of the things He wills can be changed, then prayer is in vain."Origen is focusing on the changeless nature of God, His complete knowledge of everything, and His complete power over creation. God knows everything, can do anything, and never changes. What possible place is there for prayer?
Yancey spends a whole chapter (and more) on this conundrum, putting forward a number of ideas. My favorite by far is a quote from C.S.Lewis responding to the question, "If God knows what is best and always does good, then won't He do it whether we pray or not?" Lewis responds,
"Why wash your hands? If God intends them to be clean, they'll come clean without you washing them... Why ask for the salt? Why put on your boots? Why do anything?"Why indeed. I suppose it's an obvious line of thinking, but one I have never really thought about. The question is not so much, "Why does God want me to pray?" as "Why did God arrange creation so that I can manipulate reality at all?"
God doesn't need me to do anything. He is able to do what ever he chooses without my help, and in fact that seems to me to be a more efficient way to get things done. Yet, God consistently chooses to involve me in his world. C.S. Lewis writes, "For He seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures."
4 comments:
I believe that God doesn't give up his sovereignty when he gives us free will. Just because I delegate some decisions to my subordinates doesn't mean I'm not the boss anymore, or that I don't still have the power and authority to overrule any decision they make. Sometimes those in the church who "take a high view of the sovereignty of God" fail to recognize this rather basic aspect of exercising authority. They think it diminishes God to say that we have any role in the outcome. I don't agree.
Furthermore, just because God knows what I'm going to do doesn't mean it wasn't really my choice. My knowledge is limited and imperfect, and I can predict what my kids are going to do about 80% of the time. God's knowledge is perfect and complete. He is never wrong about what I'm going to do. But he still lets me make the decision.
This is something I've recently struggled with as well. I know people who (quite admirably) put an enormous amount of time and effort and prayer. My church-y side rationalizes my relative prayerlessness by saying that it's not one of my "gifts." But a part of me also sees it as almost futile. My problem with Lewis' analogy is that I must be the one to wash my hands; I must be the one to put on my boots. When I pray, I'm just asking God to do it for me. I can pray all day that God would put my boots on, but until I get off my bum and do it myself, the boots will be right where I left them.
Instead of praying about something, wouldn't it make more sense for me to actually DO something about it? Instead of praying that God would make me a better parent, shouldn't I use the time to read a book about parenting, or hang out with my kid? Instead of praying that God would help me relate to people, shouldn't I be calling my friends on the phone, or ministering to the poor?
I guess my point is this: prayer to me doesn't often feel like action. It feels like TALKING about action. And that's not the same thing.
Bill, this idea that God can both be in complete control of creation and also allow me to make truly free choices is what has fueled the predestination/free will debate. It's hard to imagine how both can be true, yet that difficulty is indicative of our "low" view of God. We wrongly conclude that because we can't understand it, God can't do it!
CB, In my mind, the fundamental question that needs to be answered about prayer is, "What is prayer for?" We intuitively understand that the purpose of washing hands is to get them clean. The action has a desired outcome and we can connect them. But what is the desired outcome of prayer? The title to this post exposes the problem you allude to. Do we pray in order to get God to do something? If so, it is often easier for us to simply go do the thing ourselves, and as you point out, that's just what we should do!
We're left with the Bible's clear instruction that we are to pray, and that our prayers are in some way requests to God, and that God hears our prayers and responds. To borrow your words, I must be the one who prays, but to what end?
The fundamental purpose for prayer can't simply be to get God to do what we could do ourselves. I think it is more like what you and your spouse do at the end of the day when you talk over the problems you've faced that day. You're really not doing that so that your spouse can take some action to solve your problems (although sometimes that happens). The purpose is more to share each other's lives, strengthening your relationship. After years and years of doing this you come to almost be able to read each other's mind. I think prayer is God's way of teaching us to "read his mind."
Rob,
Finally, my first blog comment...thanks for a great lesson/blog post. This is an issue that has caused me a great deal of consternation, and in fact I was complaining to my wife about it just a few weeks ago.
Lewis' answer makes perfect sense, and is a brilliant perspective I had never thought of before. But I'll still struggle with how this is intertwined with the predestination/free will question. Do I really have a choice of whether to pray? Or was I designed to pray in certain situations such that God's will is completed?
Obviously I have a choice of whether to pray, and should pray without ceasing. I'm just pointing out that even when I get my arms halfway around one facet of God's amazing knowledge and power, there's something else that leaves me stumped. :)
Post a Comment