How should Christians pray, particularly in this time of National and International uncertainty and need?
Many Christians are putting out somewhat curious posts and messages all over the internet about how it really does not matter what happens because " God is in control" and that everything will be cool... Interesting.. They claim that we should just relax and let God's Will determine fatalistically the course of current events. Their version of prayer and faith often resembles something more akin to wishful thinking and mere positive affirmations, rather than supplication, confession of sins and trespasses, pleading, intercession for the actual REVERSAL of the present course of events and the dangerous precipice and ominous direction the enemies of God, truth, humanity, are herding us towards, which is the real and actual purpose of prayer..
When we look closer at the pretty, lovey-dovey sentimentality many of these literary contributions and wise " que sera sera" fatalistic affirmations are espousing, we may begin to wonder whether they have missed some important aspect of how and why we pray, and how prayer actually CHANGES THINGS, rather than somehow merely TAPS INTO "Divine" Fatalism, which they somehow interpret as " God's Will". Infact, not only does prayer CHANGE the course of things, events, determinations, decrees etc etc, it at times can be so powerful as to change GOD'S OWN existing determinations and mind... We are not mere deterministic " Robots" and neither is God some giant Computer that works on predetermined and set parameters. There are choices and freedoms associated with humanity that the rest of creation, and especially the animal kingdom, for example, do not share in... Humans are unique in that they can make free will choices beyond the confines of instinct, whereas the animal kingdom is bound by mere " yes/no" digital-like instinctual impulses of action and reaction..
As creatures of choice and change, we not only have the capacity to change our own minds and much of our surrounding circumstances, but through the power of prayer and petition to our Almighty Creator, have the ability to sway and change the direction of even His determinations. When we begin to believe that prayer actually has this ability and power, then, and only then, can we begin to understand the workings of Faith- the Faith that can move " mountains"...
In the following Scripture quotations from the Book of the Old Testament Prophet Amos, we may easily discern that an ABOUT-FACE CHANGE ( REPENTANCE), not only of God's Mind but of His DETERMINATIONS and existing DECISIONS on a matter, may be swayed and reversed as a result of Faithful pleading in prayer...
Amos 7:1 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.
Amos 7:2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
Amos 7:3 The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD.
Amos 7:4 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
Amos 7:5 Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
Amos 7:6 The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD.
2Chronicles_7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
In these perilous times which the final generation must face before the return of Christ Jesus, it is prayers of the Faithful which must ascend to Almighty God beseeching Him for deliverance, protection and salvation. Prayer is not a mere positive thought or affirmation.. It is not a mere repetition of Biblical text, or a recitation of nice sentimental platitudes. It has the capacity to not only change the course of events, but to sway even God's existing determinations against us and our land... Faith without works ( action) is dead, as Scripture tells us. Likewise Prayer without Faith in its capacity and power to exact change, remains impotent. Let us pray and believe that the onslaught of our enemies, both visible and invisible, will be thwarted, and that respite, at least for a season, would be granted to the people of the United States of America in this their hour of greatest challenge and need...
Peter Cvek
