From a Facebook exchange:
John
How many time do we need to pray for a prayer request... So that God will listen....! If God can listen our prayer once... Why do people pray again and again for same prayer matter...?
Hays
Some prayer requests have a deadline.
John
Hoooo…. What about others...?
Hays
It's partly a question of priorities. Not all prayer requests are equally important to the petitioner.
Cayden
Doesn't God know which prayers are more important ? Why repetitively petition him?
Hays
I never said if we should or shouldn't repetitively petition him. Repetition doesn't mechanically raise the odds that God will answer a prayer.
But it can be an indication of how much it means to us. How much we really care.
Cayden
So the repetition is to inform yourself.
Hays
No, it can simply be an indication of what lies heavy on our heart.
Cayden
An indication to whom? For what? To god? To make known to yourself what is heavy on your heart?
Hays
Christians can feel burdened about particular issues. They may pray about it more often because they think about it more often. It's more central to their concerns. It's something they have on their mind. And unless and until their prayer request is granted, it's just natural to continue to pray about it because it occupies more of their attention.
Prayer was never about reminding God of a need. And it's not generally about reminding ourselves, as if we forgot. That said, there are things we pray for because we have a duty to pray for them, and then there are things we pray for because it's more personal.
God uses prayer, even repetition or made by many people together or separately, although he doesn't need prayer in order to operate. Think of it this way: God motivates the very prayer he uses. Why? In order to glorify himself.
ReplyDeleteWe use prayer, not only to make petition to God, who can accomplish all things, but also as an exercise for our sanctification.
The line of argumentation given by John and Cayden here play on the typical mechanistic misunderstanding of prayer held even by many Christians. It's not mechanistic. It's organic. Prayer is not a lever that we pull in order to drop a snack from the machine, but an integral part of the relationship with have with our Father. He will provide what we need, whether we ask for it or not. He will use it to mature our faith by waiting to act until we ask. He will reward the prey-er for being faithful to pray, and faithful to pray wisely.
The question then becomes epistemological. How do we know whether our prayers accomplished anything, or whether we are deluding ourselves by attributing supposed answers to prayer to God? For the unbeliever, this isn't proof of anything as though we can log in empirical observations and develop a likelihood that God exists by the number of prayers he answers. No one starts to believe by seeing prayer answered, even by the working of some amazing miracle. Once faith has been given, however, we know that God will respond to prayer and we can attribute to God whatever results we see, whether they are pleasant results or not.
Prayer is also about release. Giving the burden to God. When things are really heavy on our hearts we have a tendency to take them back, so giving it to God over and over again is often necessary.
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