What Prayer Does...

Before we can understand what prayer may do, we first have to grapple with how we think of God, to whom our prayer is addressed.  There are many concepts of God that we need to let go.  For many people God is a kind of pillow to lie down on—the God Who Will Take Care of Everything!  But everyone knows, in spite of this popular concept, that God is not taking care of everything.  Some view God as a bookkeeper who takes notes of everyone’s good and bad behaviors, kind of like the song: “You better watch out, you better not cry, better not pout,…Santa Claus is comin’ to town.  He’s making a list and checking it twice.  Gonna find out whose naughty and nice…He knows if you’ve been bad or good.  So be good for goodness sake.”  Still others see God as the God Who Is On Our Side (which means God isn’t on the side of others who aren’t on our side).  

Our concepts of God color the way we pray and what we expect our prayers to do. Can we really describe God.  Probably not.  “We can no more delineate God," said Harry Emerson Fosdick, “than we can pour the ocean into a pint cup.  Nevertheless, even a cupful of the ocean reveals its qualities.”  He went on to say, “No one can ever believe in all of God.  Believe in as much of God as you can.”  

As a Christian, Jesus represents,  for me,  that ocean poured into a pint cup and thus reveals the qualities of God.  In other words, I see the Christ-likeness of God and this is the God to whom I pray.  God is like Jesus.  This is not the end of my concept of God, but it is my beginning place when I pray.  

Does prayer alter things—anything?  If God is as Jesus described his Father, then my praying and your praying can and does make a difference.  The big difference prayer makes is that it brings us into a relationship with God—that’s the central thing.  Prayer is not “asking” so much as it is simply “being with” the Love at the heart of things.  But prayer is about “asking,” too.  Jesus prayed “Let this cup pass from me,” but then added, “not my will, but thine be done.”  

What does prayer do?  Prayer does not so much alter things (though prayer certainly can alter things—for God is not imprisoned in His own creation), but what prayer primarily does is alter the “pray-er” so that he or she may alter things.

A Country Road in Wales