Wednesday, July 07, 2004 AD
Forgetting to pray
A friend of mine was doing a sponsored sleep-out for a homeless charity last Friday. I told him that I would "try to remember to pray for good weather". This careful wording - I'm not a lawyer for nothing, y'know - was based on long and bitter experience of my less-than-brilliant track record of following up on promises to pray for people.
As it happened, while I may have shot up a quick "arrow prayer" at the time of making my (heavily qualified) promise to pray, my prayer life generally is (for various reasons) bumping along the bottom at the moment, and I didn't get round to praying that day at all, let alone for good weather in the Southampton area. My friend subsequently emailed me to say that if I had remembered to pray for good weather, "it worked" - though he also commented that, "If you didn't, can 'intending to pray' sometimes be a form of prayer?"
Aargh. Guilt, guilt.
Well, as so often, Dr Luther of blessed memory comes riding to the rescue. One of the most wonderful features of his exposition of the Lord's Prayer in the Small Catechism is the repeated reminder that it is not our prayers that count, but the gracious purposes of our loving God, to whom we pray (or don't, as the case may be):
No: because God "certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people". So - while our number one desire for our friends, neighbours, colleagues etc should indeed be that God will grant them faith in Jesus Christ, Who died for them - we are encouraged to pray also that they will find the job they're looking for, recover from illness, patch up their marriage, and all the the other good things which Luther lists under the heading of "daily bread":
As it happened, while I may have shot up a quick "arrow prayer" at the time of making my (heavily qualified) promise to pray, my prayer life generally is (for various reasons) bumping along the bottom at the moment, and I didn't get round to praying that day at all, let alone for good weather in the Southampton area. My friend subsequently emailed me to say that if I had remembered to pray for good weather, "it worked" - though he also commented that, "If you didn't, can 'intending to pray' sometimes be a form of prayer?"
Aargh. Guilt, guilt.
Well, as so often, Dr Luther of blessed memory comes riding to the rescue. One of the most wonderful features of his exposition of the Lord's Prayer in the Small Catechism is the repeated reminder that it is not our prayers that count, but the gracious purposes of our loving God, to whom we pray (or don't, as the case may be):
God's name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be kept holy among us also...That last one is particularly liberating when praying for non-Christians. Is there any point in praying for material/temporal blessings for people who are still rejecting God and facing eternity in hell? Isn't that rather missing the point? Shouldn't we just be praying for their salvation?
The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also...
The good and gracious will of God is done even without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also...
God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving...
No: because God "certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people". So - while our number one desire for our friends, neighbours, colleagues etc should indeed be that God will grant them faith in Jesus Christ, Who died for them - we are encouraged to pray also that they will find the job they're looking for, recover from illness, patch up their marriage, and all the the other good things which Luther lists under the heading of "daily bread":
Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbours, and the like.And even if - when - we forget to do so, God's love for our neighbour still far exceeds our own, as he "richly and daily provides [them] with all that [they] need to support this body and life" (Creed, First Article).
