St. Augustine once said,
“provided that no one asks me, I know. If I want to explain it to an inquirer,
I do not know.”
Truthfully I’m often exactly
like St. Augustine. I know how to pray but I struggle to articulate how or why.
Truth be known I have a ton of questions regarding prayer. I won’t discuss what
I have learned over the recent years in this post, but I will eventually. The
primary question that I’ve dealt with is “Does It Make Any Difference?” That
is, does God “change his mind” when we pray, many people point to passages in
the Old Testament, but I believe the change is entirely within us?
Phillip Yancey, says prayer is
about communing with God. But he makes it clear that this communing often takes
the form of wrestling, pleading, and even expressing anger toward God. Contrary
to what many believe, prayer is for the purpose of the believer to know God and
his heart. As to change, prayer certainly changes us, not just us as
individuals but as communities. This is why a healthy church must be a Gospel
community filled with prayer. Does God change his plans? We may never know.
Does God move when we pray? It may seem that way.
The fact is, When we pray
things happen, even when we can’t see things happen, our hearts are moving
closer in communion to the Father.
