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I’m weary, TGIF, but it’s not the work week that has worn me down, it’s the relentless marathon of grief and suffering, one right after another. Pray for Paris, pray for Orlando, pray for Dallas, pray for Nice, pray for Turkey….
There’s nothing wrong with praying for people impacted by these atrocities. By all means pray and show your solidarity, and let people know you care. It’s just that prayer is powerful, prayer changes things, prayer can heal. Prayer is not the powerless routine answer to grief and tragedy. Prayer is not just a helpless response to endless violence. Prayer is not just a sympathy card one sends.
Prayer is powerful and I wonder sometimes if we’re trivializing that.
One reason why we pray one for another, up close and personal, is because we can see our prayers in action, we can let people know they are loved, we can feel the power there. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
“Exhorting,” it means to strongly encourage or urge. That is yet another benefit that comes from praying for each other, not on a vast global scale, not from place of helplessness and despair, but up close and personal, intimately, specifically. Locally, right here and now, in a way that shows us the evidence and power of prayer, that allows us to bear witness to the fruit of the spirit. Intimacy.
Prayer is really not a hashtag or clicking like on facebook and sometimes I worry that we’re all starting to believe it is. It’s not just an endless parade of candle light vigils or a sympathy card we can send to the whole world, like a token expression of our sense of powerlessness and frustration.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
I throw in a few words to the Lord to ask for help and to keep others in far away places safe,but I often wonder if this is what was intended by the Lord when we were urged to pray. After all James 2:17 says “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.“ And what action can I take in Turkey or France? I quite often think, as you have pointed out IB, that we were intended to care for those ‘neighbors” in whose lives we can affect change. Not that we shouldn’t care about those in other countries and, for instance, when it comes to aid in terms of food or medical supplies or other help, we should participate generously – but this continual organizing of prayers for that which we cannot affect sometimes seems misplaced to me. If we all took care of our neighbors, then everyone would be cared for the world over. In fact praying for that which we cannot affect oft times seems to me to be an insult to the Lord – after all it’s His world and He will take care of that which is beyond our control. Now praying accompanied by action is empowering words and and the Word – a noble activity in the eyes of the Lord for sure.
Anyways – just my opinion and generally not a popular one, being that praying is a religious activity and when we refuse to pray we are threatening the structure of the church. Speaking of which what the heck is happening in Turkey and why are we all praying for them? I know the army tried to take over the government in a coup – which i am sure spilled some blood – but that said, the Turkish military has always been on our side. The Turkish government not so much. There have been rumblings of Turkey becoming a theocracy for years now = a Muslim theocracy. In fact the last I heard the government was leaning towards becoming a caliphate – which would dissolve any representation by government and Turkey would disappear as a country. It would be a travesty for non-Muslims and likely would result in a civil war. The Turkish military has always been strong and representative of all religions – not favoring any. Their intentions would be to solidify Turkey as a democracy – free for all,not just one religious group. Which is why I am wondering why we are praying for an action that is obviously a benefit to all religions?
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You said, “this continual organizing of prayers for that which we cannot affect sometimes seems misplaced to me.” But we can affect others by praying for them. Sometimes that is all we can do for them. We should certainly do more than pray when we have the opportunity but in situations where we can do nothing but pray we we give God the opportunity to show us that ultimately all good comes from him.
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“In fact praying for that which we cannot affect oft times seems to me to be an insult to the Lord – after all it’s His world and He will take care of that which is beyond our control.”
Me too, Paul! You have good instincts there, because it does start to feel like a misuse of prayer.
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For sure IB. After all the Lord does not need us to help run this world, He needs us to have Faith and to me that Faith means trusting that He will take care of all outside our control. And with that Faith we ACT to make our part of the world a better place – closer to God. I sure can’t do that in Turkey, especially right now.
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Praying for Turkey does not mean one has to pray that the government with survive, neither does it have to mean the coup will be successful. I would pray that whatever happens will bring glory to God and his kingdom. I have no idea what to pray for in many situations,but I do not have to know what God’s will is in order to pray. Not like praying for my football team to win; of course, I know God’s will is for my team to win! Just jesting a bit with that last remark.
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“Prayer is not a hashtag.” Nice!
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I think your concerns are valid, IB. But our prayers do not become routine or vain because we pray too much or because we ask others to pray too much or because we are asked to pray too often by others. They become routine through our allowing for hedonic adaptation instead of struggling against it. God asks us to constantly renew ourselves. God asks us to be fervent.
Yet he also asks us to be sober-minded. (We don’t need and are not asked for pep-rally style worship or heavy planned emotionalism.) His requests are not things that come naturally to us. His perfect wisdom and balance between extremes are not Where us humans would land on our own left to ourselves. We can only grow into perfect unity with Him through allowing him in our hearts and in our heads more and more, and by vigilantly, continuously returning to him, always seeking his continued help.
I posted on Facebook, just a few minutes in while this tragedy in Nice was first breaking news, which is not the norm for me. I do normally use fb to keep in contact with a wide acquaintance of lovely people and to express myself and let them keep in touch with me. But I do not normally know breaking news as its happening these last few years, like I might have in other times in my life. Here is what I wrote while I was trying to be thoughtful, not to just be seen as caring or making my concern a blip of routine reaction.
“A while back there was a terrorist attack in France that garnered more publicly proclaimed reaction from me than most terrorism stories do. I’m not sure why that was true for other people in reaction to that particular event. But I know for myself that I’ve had information and reason to pay special attention to problems with Islam within the borders of the country of France since the 90s. I wrote the American president a letter about the topic and what America should and could learn from France’s mistakes, once, 15 or 16 years or so ago. And just now I am aware of yet another breaking story of tragedy in France. France isn’t the only place I hear news from and they aren’t the only ones I’ve been praying for. But they certainly are included.”
And to be honest I didn’t pay a lot of attention to each and every tragic story since that earlier terror attack in France. But God doesn’t call me to hang on every word from the rest of the world. It’s good to care when you know something bad has happened. It isn’t required to know every tragedy, every political story, every media firestorm. Paul makes a good point to remind us that faith without works is dead. However this is a general requirement for the way we live and the effect our faith in God has on us to cause us to want to transform our lives, our actions, our choices to be more what God wants of us, not specific command we must apply to every thought that concerns us so that we must act on the situation or put it out of our heads altogether. Sometimes involvement is what’s required of us by our conscience and the training there of. Sometimes pulling in to ourselves to meditate, to our families to hold them, to our closets to pray are what is required.
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Hi IB wow interesting stuff here.
@fromscratchmom. I agree, it’s not the quantity of our prayers that trivializes them; we do that quite nicely on our own my mindless platitudes.
@ Paul. Good point, sort of there. If we pray for Turkey, what or who are we praying for? I suppose praying for those in harm’s way would be good. As you pointed out, praying for the government might be a misguided request.\
IB. Yes we trivialize prayer into a Facebook comment. You have seen it. A person ask for prayer and immediately dozens of people say, “praying,” “prayers going up!” Boloney they are. Saying you will pray for someone then not doing it is a bad move, Personally I dont’ ask people to pray for me unless I think they will actually do it.
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Thanks IB.
Scripture exhorts us continually to “fix our eyes upon Jesus”, not so easy to do when I am fixed on the endless buffet of “Breaking News.”
If, as the events throughout history, including the one playing out before us now, are not to lead us to overwhelm or even despair, but to the Author of all life, Restorer of the most broken of hearts, Healer of our souls and lives. The media stirs up something in me that I have to constantly keep in check, I’m not sure if its curiosity, a kind of unhealthy intrigue. Yet what I notice is that I get “hooked in” and therefore “detached from” the Rock and foundation of faith, trust and peaceful reassurance in the great I AM THAT I AM.
Prayer is essential, yet I agree as you have intimated many times, it is the heart behind the words as being more important than the words themselves, however fancy they may sound. Those prayers unheard and unseen by mankind yet heard and seen by the great Intercessor of us all. Maybe the question is where and what are our hearts fixed and focused upon?
How I’ve responded to the news of late is by turning off the TV, and internet after I gain enough understanding of the most recent events, opening God’s Word, and coming to the King of all kings asking Him, “Lord, how should I pray?” Father who knows each heart in all its needs, sometimes has, sometimes has not stirred me to intercede for some of these tragedies. I agree that one of the most effective remedies to hopelessness is to be used of the Lord in those “face to face” encounters.
So….in this day He has made, I rejoice with you in all the ways He will use each son and daughter for His glory, His Kingdom, His righteousness and Namesake. Jesus, lover of our souls, Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, is yet able to grant us all a joy that strengthens the weariest of souls. Blessings to you IB!
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Oh, thank you for those wonderful words. This is such good advice, “opening God’s Word, and coming to the King of all kings asking Him, “Lord, how should I pray?” Sometimes I am so busy praying for what I want or what I think I want, I forget to ask God, how would you have me pray right now and for whom?
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I agree with you for the most part IB, prayer is very powerful. But, on the other hand, I do think prayer has been reduced to a hashtag for the most part.
People say they are praying, change their profile picture, or do an number of other things to show support in the wake of tragedy but this is all, again for the most part, just for show.
Saying “prayers for whatever” is now worth as much as “bless you” or “God bless America.”
What the world needs to do is stop saying they are praying and actually start praying and praying in earnest.
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If prayer is powerful after, why not before to prevent?
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It sounds good to me, why not prayers of prevention? I have seen that work, I have seen people pray for others and completely change the course they were on.
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My point was, why doesn’t prayer seem to prevent these tragedies f4om happening in the first place? How many mom’s and family members do you think regularly pray for one another’s safety as they go about their days? I can tell you that as Christian, I always prayed for my day and the safety and we’ll being of my family and friends. I would imagine others do so also.
Why, if so many people are praying before hand, and if prayer truly has power as you say, then do these tragedies still happen? Is God saying no or is it that he just doesn’t care to intervene? If that’s the case and we can’t tell if and when he will… and he’s sovereign to to so at his will and plan, then why pray at all?
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God cares and He is also sovereign. Both are true at the same time. I have seen the fruit of prayers for protection and safety. I have no idea how it all works, I simply know it does. We can also never fully understand how protected and sheltered we really are, how many times God has stepped in and intervened, but I am certain He can and He does.
As to why pray at all, we pray for many reasons, for leadership and guidance, for understanding and wisdom, to make our desires known, to better understand ourselves, to learn the nature of His ways and His will. We don’t always get precisely what we pray for, but often we do. If you have a powerful pray life, sometimes God will even show you why somethings happen the way they do.
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Hello Kia — I believe that many of the horrors happening today are pieces of the events described throughout the New Testament. To me, to expect God to answer our prayers of not allowing these things to happen would be praying that His word is not true. I think, in addition to prayer for the safety of ourselves and our loved ones, we should be praying that the eyes of the world open to the words in the Bible and that their hearts open to the love of God. And our eyes of compassion open to the victims and families of the victims and be His human hands to help them in their time of deep need. May God bless us each and every one – and that we have the ability to recognize His blessings.
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All the horrific news the last two weeks has made me pray for our country and the world more than I normally do. Good post on prayer and what prayer is and isn’t
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I very much agree with you. Over the last few years, I’ve realized at times that I’ve said “I’ll be praying for you” – and then forget to – and that bothers me when I do that. So to help make sure I’ve done so, I pray immediately after doing so and to back it up I’ve started carrying a prayer book with me to add those prayers to. Now if I can remember to not leave the book at home I’m doing good….Great post!
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