Can Prayer Change Things?
Bible Study
Hope For Tomorrow
What Jesus Would Say Today
Object:
Let's stop making prayer profound, theological, and subject to traditional patterns. Prayer is the normal relationship between a child and its Father -- you being the child and God being your Heavenly Father. There are no special phrases without which Heaven is barred to us. Surely God is no petty, insecure tyrant insisting on some divine protocol.
-- Anonymous
* * *
One day we shall thank God for his refusal to answer our prayers, just as a typhoid patient on recovering might well thank a doctor or nurse for refusing to give him food.
-- Leslie Weatherhead
* * *
Living without a sense of God is like steering a ship by the light on one's own masthead.
-- Robert Luccock
Can Prayer Change Things?
"Ask, and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you."
-- Matthew 7:7
Tennyson's famous line -- "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of" -- well expresses my own view of prayer. Prayer has constantly changed things for the better for me, and the many people who have shared with me about their own prayer experiences have convinced me that prayer is the greatest personal power at our disposal. If we pray on a regular basis, wonderful things will happen in our lives. But we need to understand certain, shall we say, ground rules of prayer. There are four that I have observed.
* * *
Jesus promised that prayer will dramatically change and bless our lives.
* * *
First, God may answer "No!" We have already discussed the fact that God will not violate his own natural laws. If you jump off a cliff, you're guaranteed to hit bottom, prayer or not. There are probably many natural laws, unknown to us, by which God can accomplish what may appear to us to be miracles, but they are established laws of the universe. Also, we may often pray for things which will not be for our benefit and God may say "No!" I remember as a small boy begging my parents for a pair of roller skates so I could join the older kids on the street. They refused. That was it. I had to wait. Later, as a parent myself, I understood their wisdom. So with God. We can't have everything we want. Harry Emerson Fosdick, founding pastor of the great Riverside Church in New York, wrote: "To many people, prayer is only an additional way of getting what they want, a kind of spare tire to be used when others fail." God is aware of what's going on in our minds. We sometimes pray: "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid." That's the Collect for Purity of Heart. Verbalizing our prayers is helpful for us because it enables us to formulate our thoughts, but God is hearing our deepest thoughts and feelings, not our mere words. Prayers designed to take the work or the pain out of life are not likely to be answered "Yes!" "Pray not for lighter burdens, but for stronger backs."
Second, God may answer "Wait." We must pray with persistence, trusting in God's superior wisdom to know when and how to answer our prayers. I finally got those roller skates (not from God, of course -- that's merely an analogy), but it was two years later. God may decide the time is not right for my prayer to be answered affirmatively, that I must wait. Jesus once told about a fellow who had a late night visitor. According to custom, he was to serve the guest a meal. However, the homeowner was out of food. He went to his next-door neighbor to ask for help, but the neighbor told him to go away, everyone was in bed. But his friend kept pounding on the door, refusing to leave without the food. Finally, the exasperated neighbor came down and supplied the food. Jesus then concluded this little story, saying: "Even if he will not get up and give you the bread because he is your friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not afraid to keep on asking. And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive" (Luke 11:8). That was Jesus' way of saying we are to keep praying for the things we need, even if the results are disappointing for a time. The time just may not be right.
On the other hand, many times we won't have to wait. Elizabeth Barrett Browning once wrote: "God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, and thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, a gauntlet with a gift in't." She was pointing out that there will be times when we might have had second thoughts, had we known what answer God might have had for us. In a fine novel about a Scottish pastor besieged by problems in his small parish, J. W. Stevenson, in God In My Unbelief, quotes the man as referring to prayer this way: "There was laughter in it, too, as when I prayed that I might be used in the service of Christ's compassion, and a succession of needy folk came to my door at inconvenient hours just as I had planned to be giving myself to the Lord's work." Sometimes prayers will require patience, other times we'll be surprised how quickly they're answered and at how they're answered. What we can absolutely count on is that sincere prayer will always receive a response from God.
The third ground rule is that God will not answer selfish prayers. It's a waste of time to pray for a new car or a big promotion, or to pray for something which might hurt someone else. When I watch football players kneel momentarily in the end zone after a touchdown, I commend them if they're giving thanks for being enabled to do their very best. However, they've got it wrong if they think God cares who wins a football game. Quarterback Mark Brunell of Jacksonville of the NFL said in a television interview after an important victory, "God has blessed this team." He was probably right, in regard to the courage shown by the players throughout the season. However, the following week they lost to the New England Patriots who thereby went to the Super Bowl. God seeks only our spiritual growth, and that we become people who show love for other people. When I face a difficult undertaking, I mustn't pray for God to make my work easier. I fully understand that I'm supposed to do the work, and what I do believe is that God will empower me. As George Buttrick said, "Fields are not plowed by praying over them."
When I was in seminary, I had a friend who was also preparing to become an ordained minister. One day as we were entering a classroom to take a final exam, I remarked to him that I had spent most of the previous night studying. He explained that he'd had a very busy week and hadn't had time to prepare. However, he said he had prayed that if God would get him through this exam, he would promise to study extra hard the next time. He flunked. As a matter of fact, though this friend trusted in God, he wasn't a very hard worker and in due course, he dropped out of school. Prayer does not take the place of our own responsibilities.
The fourth ground rule is that we each must find our own best way to pray. I'm at my worst praying in church, though I sincerely try to tune in to whatever is being publicly prayed. I'm at my best when taking a long walk, or pacing the floor of my study. And I doubt that God cares what kind of language we use, so long as it's respectful. "Thee's" and "thou's" are fine if they are natural to you. Remember, though, God is hearing your deepest inner thoughts, not your words. Words are just for your benefit. What is important is total honesty, even if it's embarrassing. Also, allow time for listening. "The word comes not to the chatterer but to him who holds his tongue," wrote Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A few moments of silence with one's mind on God can change your day.
I also have concluded that proper physical posture is not essential to effective prayer. The man who influenced my life most at one time kept a prayer desk in his office and knelt there to pray. I tried that and it didn't work for me. I do sometimes kneel in a darkened room to pray, but I also pray when driving down Meridian Street, or when walking to the post office, or when doing a workout, and that works too. What you must do is find a method of prayer that best enables you to focus your mind on God. And need I say, while corporate prayer in church is important as a way of bonding with fellow worshippers, private prayer will probably be the most effective form of prayer to change your life? Jesus said: "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship, and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them." I used to have an occasional lunch with a very devout friend who always bowed his head, usually in a very nice restaurant filled with his fellow professionals, and prayed rather loudly for a full minute. To be completely truthful, I was embarrassed. Jesus clearly spoke against this practice. He said: "Go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you" (Matthew 6:5-7).
Jesus promised that prayer will dramatically change and bless our lives. "Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you." he said. "For everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to him who knocks." What a powerful promise. "As bad as you are," he continued, "you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him" (Matthew 7:7-11).
* * *
Boy to sailor on Maine Coast: "What is the wind?" Sailor's reply: "I don't know. But I know how to hoist a sail."
* * *
Let's consider some ways in which prayer plays a part in the lives of those of us who pray. Prayer can affect us in the physical world. One of the great stories of World War II was that of Eddie Rickenbacker. A World War I ace, daredevil flier and race car driver, onetime owner of the Indianapolis 500 Speedway, and Congressional Medal of Honor winner, Rickenbacker was sent on a top secret mission to the Pacific theatre of operations where he was to deliver a confidential message to General Douglas MacArthur. His plane became lost and, unable to make contact with their destined airfield, he and his seven companions crash-landed in the ocean. They would later learn that they were 500 miles from the nearest land, though at the time they had no knowledge of their location.
There were eight men riding on three tiny rafts. They had four oranges, no water, and no equipment. By the eighth day, the condition of the men was so severe that survival seemed unlikely. Their skin was burned raw by the sun and they were slowly dying of thirst and hunger. Rickenbacker, realizing that one of the men had a New Testament, opened it and came to the passage in Matthew where Jesus is quoted as saying, "Therefore, take no thought, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink? For your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of these things." He drew the three small rafts together, read the passage to them, then asked all the men to pray together. They asked God to help them, declared their trust in his will, then lay back and Rickenbacker fell sound asleep. Suddenly, he was awakened by the realization that a large sea gull had landed on his head -- several hundred miles from land. Quietly, he reached up and managed to grab the bird. It was their first food except for half an orange each in eight days. After eating all but the entrails, they used those as bait and for the first time were able to catch several small fish.
Water was their main concern. One man had already died from his weakened condition. Again, they prayed for help. Soon, having seen no rain since the crash, they saw clouds in the distance and before long were under a rain squall which provided sufficient water to revive the men. They were destined to remain on those rafts for a total of 24 days, but each time their needs were desperate, something happened to save them. Finally, Navy planes found the men and carried them to safety where several of them required lengthy periods of recuperation, but seven men survived. All were convinced that God had saved them.
I must share with the reader my early skepticism about this well-known story. Why would God not help those men whether they prayed or not? But then I decided, why pray if we expect answers anyway? Why did thousands of men die in the war even though they prayed, if God was willing to assist in these ways? I don't have an easy answer to that. But that same question is legitimate in all of life. Jesus implied an answer when he said, "The wind blows wherever it wishes ..." (John 3:8). In other words, God will do what is best for us in terms of the distant scene as well as the immediate situation. The time will come when it will all make sense. Meanwhile, I see and hear of remarkable events, similar to those which occurred to Rickenbacker and his friends. He was a very earthy, practical man, yet he had not the slightest doubt that God had enabled them to survive -- nor, it seems, did any of those men who were with him. I have concluded that God sees our lives over a broad spectrum which reaches beyond this life into the next. There will be times when prayer does not bring the results which I wish for. That's where faith comes in. So we pray: "Thy will be done." God will decide, and his decision will be what we would have prayed for, had we known.
Prayer can affect us in our inner, emotional life. I proved this to myself not long ago. I was feeling low and grouchy. Do you ever get that way? I was complaining about everything, grumping around the house, feeling sorry for myself. I had lunch that day with several minister friends and finally, one of them turned to me and said: "McGriff, if you want sympathy, go someplace else. We all have problems." I thought to myself, "Okay, I'll just sit here and not talk." I went home that night and, thinking dinner out with my wife might make me feel better, I suggested that we go to a nice restaurant. She agreed, and suggested we invite some friends. I asked why she wanted someone else along, and she said, "Because I don't think I want to be alone with you this evening." I got the point.
The next morning, still not feeling very good about things, I started to pray. As nearly as I can remember, my prayer was something like this: "Lord, I'm being a big pain to everyone at the moment. I feel crummy, I'm in a bad mood. What are we going to do about this?" Please believe me, dear reader, shortly after that prayer I began to feel better. My spirits lifted, I felt a surge of energy, and my day was a wonderful day. I had proved to myself again that if I let God share my life, things go a great deal better. That doesn't mean I had any less problems, or any less demands upon my time. It means I was ready to "go get 'em." God does that. When Jesus said he wanted his joy to be fulfilled in us, he meant it. We all have difficult work to do at times, heavy burdens to bear. But while God isn't quick to remove those, he certainly will empower us in handling our problems.
Prayer can affect our subconscious mind. There's a part of each of us which is inaccessible to conscious thought. It has a great deal to do with "who we are." It is in that subconscious part of the mind that are to be found our temptations, our impulses, our likes and dislikes, our sense of humor, our feelings about people, our fears, those elements which determine what makes us happy, what makes us sad. It is here that mental health resides, or does not reside. Although the healing sciences are in the very early stage of understanding the human mind, we do know that much about our physical condition is determined by our subconscious mind. While I think it's not quite true that all illnesses are a result of deep unhappiness and stress, I do believe (and more importantly, many psychologists and physicians believe) that much physical illness has its source in emotional forces beyond easy access. These conditions are partly inherited, partly a result of parental relationships, and partly external forces which have worked on us since birth.
I know certain things about myself, things which depress me or which energize me, but I don't know exactly why. I can come home at night tired from a stressful day, ready to read or watch a little television, then go to bed. My wife can tell me that some friends called and want us to meet them for dinner, at which announcement I may feel a surge of energy, ready to go until after midnight. I am an extreme extrovert and derive energy from people. I don't know why this is true. I can only guess what subconscious forces cause this. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that in my childhood, I didn't have many friends. Our family situation made this necessary and it may be that my feelings of childhood loneliness explain me. I can't do anything about this.
One of my longtime friends, on the other hand, is a total stick-in-the-mud, up at some terribly early hour, dinner at 5:30 and, his social life ended for the day, ready for bed at a time when I'm just ready to go out for dinner. He, of course, would see this just the opposite. To him, I'm a lazy bum who gets up long after the rest of the world is at work, eating at odd hours, running around at night when I should be at home, then wasting the best part of the day. Where do these differences come from? My friend derives energy from the prospect of reading a book; I find it in being with people. He's an introvert (incidentally, most books about prayer are written by introverts, which is why much emphasis is often placed on lonely meditation, quiet contemplation -- worthy qualities of prayer life, but not absolutely indispensable to effective prayer); I'm an extrovert. One is not better than the other. Those human differences make us all interesting to each other. But sometimes our inner forces can present real problems.
I have an acquaintance who is immensely talented and fine looking, and was highly successful during his school years. He has failed at everything he has tried since, and is nearing retirement with virtually no resources. At least one counselor has speculated that the man has repressed guilt feelings, therefore feels unworthy of success and is subconsciously driven to spoil every undertaking at the very moment of success. Knowing the man, I'm inclined to believe this diagnosis.
Psychiatrists try to help people uncover these deeply buried forces within us on the theory that once they are recognized they lose their power over us. Perhaps. But the Apostle Paul had another idea. "Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world," he wrote, "but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind" (Romans 12:2). We cannot go back and undo the many negative factors which have made us as we are, but God can transform those forces, using them in a positive way. I like to think my extroversion mixed with loneliness, which could have tormented me, was used instead by God to enable me to serve as a minister of a church to a great many people. My introverted friend has been very successful and done much good for people through his faith, and God has used his discomfort with people in a marvelous way. And along with the fact that God can transform our inner being, using potentially destructive forces in positive ways, can come the gift of healing. I have a strong conviction that many biblical reports of healing were exactly a result of this transformation. And along with the rest comes eventual peace of mind. But first, there may come pain as destructive forces are excised.
A fascinating report from World War II told of a German flier in the Luftwaffe who suffered a mental breakdown and was hospitalized. A psychiatrist reported that the man had a brother who was a member of the hated SS, but whom this boy loved. He also had a sister who had rejected Naziism and had cooperated with the German resistance to Hitler. The flier hated his sister for fighting against everything he had fought for. He wrestled with terrible inner turmoil, only partly explained by his war experiences. Psychologists tried to help. His religious faith seemed small comfort. One night the young flier fell into a restless sleep and had a nightmare. In it, his SS brother whom he loved came to him. But instead of feeling love, he felt a terrible wave of hatred sweep through him. Then he saw his sister in his dream, but instead of the hatred he had felt for her consciously, he felt an overflowing sense of love for her. The boy awakened in a cold sweat, emotionally torn apart by these feelings.
This story has no happy ending. The flier committed suicide, unable to deal with the conflict. The psychologist reporting this sad case said that deep down the boy had a deep set of good values and had come to know the Nazi cause was wrong. He wrote: "The whole person may begin to emerge, though this may not bring inner peace, but conflict and stress. The movement toward health may sometimes look more like crucifixion than peace of mind."
It is there, though, in that deepest part of our very beings that God can come with transforming, healing power to set us free of our emotional demons, and to use those unique forces within us in ways that no longer need be destructive, but can be creative. Saint Paul finished his advice by saying, "Then you will be able to know the will of God." In other words, as this transforming process takes place, we are drawn closer to God and to the healing, peace-giving power which is ours through the Spirit.
Pray, then.
Questions For Discussion
1. How do you pray?
2. When your prayers aren't answered as you had hoped, how do you feel?
3. Under what conditions do you find yourself best able to pray?
4. Does praying in church seem effective to you? Is the pastoral prayer helpful, or does your mind wander? What about the silent prayer? What about other liturgy?
5. Does it trouble you when you get sleepy, or your mind wanders when you pray?
-- Anonymous
* * *
One day we shall thank God for his refusal to answer our prayers, just as a typhoid patient on recovering might well thank a doctor or nurse for refusing to give him food.
-- Leslie Weatherhead
* * *
Living without a sense of God is like steering a ship by the light on one's own masthead.
-- Robert Luccock
Can Prayer Change Things?
"Ask, and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you."
-- Matthew 7:7
Tennyson's famous line -- "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of" -- well expresses my own view of prayer. Prayer has constantly changed things for the better for me, and the many people who have shared with me about their own prayer experiences have convinced me that prayer is the greatest personal power at our disposal. If we pray on a regular basis, wonderful things will happen in our lives. But we need to understand certain, shall we say, ground rules of prayer. There are four that I have observed.
* * *
Jesus promised that prayer will dramatically change and bless our lives.
* * *
First, God may answer "No!" We have already discussed the fact that God will not violate his own natural laws. If you jump off a cliff, you're guaranteed to hit bottom, prayer or not. There are probably many natural laws, unknown to us, by which God can accomplish what may appear to us to be miracles, but they are established laws of the universe. Also, we may often pray for things which will not be for our benefit and God may say "No!" I remember as a small boy begging my parents for a pair of roller skates so I could join the older kids on the street. They refused. That was it. I had to wait. Later, as a parent myself, I understood their wisdom. So with God. We can't have everything we want. Harry Emerson Fosdick, founding pastor of the great Riverside Church in New York, wrote: "To many people, prayer is only an additional way of getting what they want, a kind of spare tire to be used when others fail." God is aware of what's going on in our minds. We sometimes pray: "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid." That's the Collect for Purity of Heart. Verbalizing our prayers is helpful for us because it enables us to formulate our thoughts, but God is hearing our deepest thoughts and feelings, not our mere words. Prayers designed to take the work or the pain out of life are not likely to be answered "Yes!" "Pray not for lighter burdens, but for stronger backs."
Second, God may answer "Wait." We must pray with persistence, trusting in God's superior wisdom to know when and how to answer our prayers. I finally got those roller skates (not from God, of course -- that's merely an analogy), but it was two years later. God may decide the time is not right for my prayer to be answered affirmatively, that I must wait. Jesus once told about a fellow who had a late night visitor. According to custom, he was to serve the guest a meal. However, the homeowner was out of food. He went to his next-door neighbor to ask for help, but the neighbor told him to go away, everyone was in bed. But his friend kept pounding on the door, refusing to leave without the food. Finally, the exasperated neighbor came down and supplied the food. Jesus then concluded this little story, saying: "Even if he will not get up and give you the bread because he is your friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not afraid to keep on asking. And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive" (Luke 11:8). That was Jesus' way of saying we are to keep praying for the things we need, even if the results are disappointing for a time. The time just may not be right.
On the other hand, many times we won't have to wait. Elizabeth Barrett Browning once wrote: "God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, and thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, a gauntlet with a gift in't." She was pointing out that there will be times when we might have had second thoughts, had we known what answer God might have had for us. In a fine novel about a Scottish pastor besieged by problems in his small parish, J. W. Stevenson, in God In My Unbelief, quotes the man as referring to prayer this way: "There was laughter in it, too, as when I prayed that I might be used in the service of Christ's compassion, and a succession of needy folk came to my door at inconvenient hours just as I had planned to be giving myself to the Lord's work." Sometimes prayers will require patience, other times we'll be surprised how quickly they're answered and at how they're answered. What we can absolutely count on is that sincere prayer will always receive a response from God.
The third ground rule is that God will not answer selfish prayers. It's a waste of time to pray for a new car or a big promotion, or to pray for something which might hurt someone else. When I watch football players kneel momentarily in the end zone after a touchdown, I commend them if they're giving thanks for being enabled to do their very best. However, they've got it wrong if they think God cares who wins a football game. Quarterback Mark Brunell of Jacksonville of the NFL said in a television interview after an important victory, "God has blessed this team." He was probably right, in regard to the courage shown by the players throughout the season. However, the following week they lost to the New England Patriots who thereby went to the Super Bowl. God seeks only our spiritual growth, and that we become people who show love for other people. When I face a difficult undertaking, I mustn't pray for God to make my work easier. I fully understand that I'm supposed to do the work, and what I do believe is that God will empower me. As George Buttrick said, "Fields are not plowed by praying over them."
When I was in seminary, I had a friend who was also preparing to become an ordained minister. One day as we were entering a classroom to take a final exam, I remarked to him that I had spent most of the previous night studying. He explained that he'd had a very busy week and hadn't had time to prepare. However, he said he had prayed that if God would get him through this exam, he would promise to study extra hard the next time. He flunked. As a matter of fact, though this friend trusted in God, he wasn't a very hard worker and in due course, he dropped out of school. Prayer does not take the place of our own responsibilities.
The fourth ground rule is that we each must find our own best way to pray. I'm at my worst praying in church, though I sincerely try to tune in to whatever is being publicly prayed. I'm at my best when taking a long walk, or pacing the floor of my study. And I doubt that God cares what kind of language we use, so long as it's respectful. "Thee's" and "thou's" are fine if they are natural to you. Remember, though, God is hearing your deepest inner thoughts, not your words. Words are just for your benefit. What is important is total honesty, even if it's embarrassing. Also, allow time for listening. "The word comes not to the chatterer but to him who holds his tongue," wrote Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A few moments of silence with one's mind on God can change your day.
I also have concluded that proper physical posture is not essential to effective prayer. The man who influenced my life most at one time kept a prayer desk in his office and knelt there to pray. I tried that and it didn't work for me. I do sometimes kneel in a darkened room to pray, but I also pray when driving down Meridian Street, or when walking to the post office, or when doing a workout, and that works too. What you must do is find a method of prayer that best enables you to focus your mind on God. And need I say, while corporate prayer in church is important as a way of bonding with fellow worshippers, private prayer will probably be the most effective form of prayer to change your life? Jesus said: "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship, and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them." I used to have an occasional lunch with a very devout friend who always bowed his head, usually in a very nice restaurant filled with his fellow professionals, and prayed rather loudly for a full minute. To be completely truthful, I was embarrassed. Jesus clearly spoke against this practice. He said: "Go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you" (Matthew 6:5-7).
Jesus promised that prayer will dramatically change and bless our lives. "Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you." he said. "For everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to him who knocks." What a powerful promise. "As bad as you are," he continued, "you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him" (Matthew 7:7-11).
* * *
Boy to sailor on Maine Coast: "What is the wind?" Sailor's reply: "I don't know. But I know how to hoist a sail."
* * *
Let's consider some ways in which prayer plays a part in the lives of those of us who pray. Prayer can affect us in the physical world. One of the great stories of World War II was that of Eddie Rickenbacker. A World War I ace, daredevil flier and race car driver, onetime owner of the Indianapolis 500 Speedway, and Congressional Medal of Honor winner, Rickenbacker was sent on a top secret mission to the Pacific theatre of operations where he was to deliver a confidential message to General Douglas MacArthur. His plane became lost and, unable to make contact with their destined airfield, he and his seven companions crash-landed in the ocean. They would later learn that they were 500 miles from the nearest land, though at the time they had no knowledge of their location.
There were eight men riding on three tiny rafts. They had four oranges, no water, and no equipment. By the eighth day, the condition of the men was so severe that survival seemed unlikely. Their skin was burned raw by the sun and they were slowly dying of thirst and hunger. Rickenbacker, realizing that one of the men had a New Testament, opened it and came to the passage in Matthew where Jesus is quoted as saying, "Therefore, take no thought, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink? For your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of these things." He drew the three small rafts together, read the passage to them, then asked all the men to pray together. They asked God to help them, declared their trust in his will, then lay back and Rickenbacker fell sound asleep. Suddenly, he was awakened by the realization that a large sea gull had landed on his head -- several hundred miles from land. Quietly, he reached up and managed to grab the bird. It was their first food except for half an orange each in eight days. After eating all but the entrails, they used those as bait and for the first time were able to catch several small fish.
Water was their main concern. One man had already died from his weakened condition. Again, they prayed for help. Soon, having seen no rain since the crash, they saw clouds in the distance and before long were under a rain squall which provided sufficient water to revive the men. They were destined to remain on those rafts for a total of 24 days, but each time their needs were desperate, something happened to save them. Finally, Navy planes found the men and carried them to safety where several of them required lengthy periods of recuperation, but seven men survived. All were convinced that God had saved them.
I must share with the reader my early skepticism about this well-known story. Why would God not help those men whether they prayed or not? But then I decided, why pray if we expect answers anyway? Why did thousands of men die in the war even though they prayed, if God was willing to assist in these ways? I don't have an easy answer to that. But that same question is legitimate in all of life. Jesus implied an answer when he said, "The wind blows wherever it wishes ..." (John 3:8). In other words, God will do what is best for us in terms of the distant scene as well as the immediate situation. The time will come when it will all make sense. Meanwhile, I see and hear of remarkable events, similar to those which occurred to Rickenbacker and his friends. He was a very earthy, practical man, yet he had not the slightest doubt that God had enabled them to survive -- nor, it seems, did any of those men who were with him. I have concluded that God sees our lives over a broad spectrum which reaches beyond this life into the next. There will be times when prayer does not bring the results which I wish for. That's where faith comes in. So we pray: "Thy will be done." God will decide, and his decision will be what we would have prayed for, had we known.
Prayer can affect us in our inner, emotional life. I proved this to myself not long ago. I was feeling low and grouchy. Do you ever get that way? I was complaining about everything, grumping around the house, feeling sorry for myself. I had lunch that day with several minister friends and finally, one of them turned to me and said: "McGriff, if you want sympathy, go someplace else. We all have problems." I thought to myself, "Okay, I'll just sit here and not talk." I went home that night and, thinking dinner out with my wife might make me feel better, I suggested that we go to a nice restaurant. She agreed, and suggested we invite some friends. I asked why she wanted someone else along, and she said, "Because I don't think I want to be alone with you this evening." I got the point.
The next morning, still not feeling very good about things, I started to pray. As nearly as I can remember, my prayer was something like this: "Lord, I'm being a big pain to everyone at the moment. I feel crummy, I'm in a bad mood. What are we going to do about this?" Please believe me, dear reader, shortly after that prayer I began to feel better. My spirits lifted, I felt a surge of energy, and my day was a wonderful day. I had proved to myself again that if I let God share my life, things go a great deal better. That doesn't mean I had any less problems, or any less demands upon my time. It means I was ready to "go get 'em." God does that. When Jesus said he wanted his joy to be fulfilled in us, he meant it. We all have difficult work to do at times, heavy burdens to bear. But while God isn't quick to remove those, he certainly will empower us in handling our problems.
Prayer can affect our subconscious mind. There's a part of each of us which is inaccessible to conscious thought. It has a great deal to do with "who we are." It is in that subconscious part of the mind that are to be found our temptations, our impulses, our likes and dislikes, our sense of humor, our feelings about people, our fears, those elements which determine what makes us happy, what makes us sad. It is here that mental health resides, or does not reside. Although the healing sciences are in the very early stage of understanding the human mind, we do know that much about our physical condition is determined by our subconscious mind. While I think it's not quite true that all illnesses are a result of deep unhappiness and stress, I do believe (and more importantly, many psychologists and physicians believe) that much physical illness has its source in emotional forces beyond easy access. These conditions are partly inherited, partly a result of parental relationships, and partly external forces which have worked on us since birth.
I know certain things about myself, things which depress me or which energize me, but I don't know exactly why. I can come home at night tired from a stressful day, ready to read or watch a little television, then go to bed. My wife can tell me that some friends called and want us to meet them for dinner, at which announcement I may feel a surge of energy, ready to go until after midnight. I am an extreme extrovert and derive energy from people. I don't know why this is true. I can only guess what subconscious forces cause this. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that in my childhood, I didn't have many friends. Our family situation made this necessary and it may be that my feelings of childhood loneliness explain me. I can't do anything about this.
One of my longtime friends, on the other hand, is a total stick-in-the-mud, up at some terribly early hour, dinner at 5:30 and, his social life ended for the day, ready for bed at a time when I'm just ready to go out for dinner. He, of course, would see this just the opposite. To him, I'm a lazy bum who gets up long after the rest of the world is at work, eating at odd hours, running around at night when I should be at home, then wasting the best part of the day. Where do these differences come from? My friend derives energy from the prospect of reading a book; I find it in being with people. He's an introvert (incidentally, most books about prayer are written by introverts, which is why much emphasis is often placed on lonely meditation, quiet contemplation -- worthy qualities of prayer life, but not absolutely indispensable to effective prayer); I'm an extrovert. One is not better than the other. Those human differences make us all interesting to each other. But sometimes our inner forces can present real problems.
I have an acquaintance who is immensely talented and fine looking, and was highly successful during his school years. He has failed at everything he has tried since, and is nearing retirement with virtually no resources. At least one counselor has speculated that the man has repressed guilt feelings, therefore feels unworthy of success and is subconsciously driven to spoil every undertaking at the very moment of success. Knowing the man, I'm inclined to believe this diagnosis.
Psychiatrists try to help people uncover these deeply buried forces within us on the theory that once they are recognized they lose their power over us. Perhaps. But the Apostle Paul had another idea. "Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world," he wrote, "but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind" (Romans 12:2). We cannot go back and undo the many negative factors which have made us as we are, but God can transform those forces, using them in a positive way. I like to think my extroversion mixed with loneliness, which could have tormented me, was used instead by God to enable me to serve as a minister of a church to a great many people. My introverted friend has been very successful and done much good for people through his faith, and God has used his discomfort with people in a marvelous way. And along with the fact that God can transform our inner being, using potentially destructive forces in positive ways, can come the gift of healing. I have a strong conviction that many biblical reports of healing were exactly a result of this transformation. And along with the rest comes eventual peace of mind. But first, there may come pain as destructive forces are excised.
A fascinating report from World War II told of a German flier in the Luftwaffe who suffered a mental breakdown and was hospitalized. A psychiatrist reported that the man had a brother who was a member of the hated SS, but whom this boy loved. He also had a sister who had rejected Naziism and had cooperated with the German resistance to Hitler. The flier hated his sister for fighting against everything he had fought for. He wrestled with terrible inner turmoil, only partly explained by his war experiences. Psychologists tried to help. His religious faith seemed small comfort. One night the young flier fell into a restless sleep and had a nightmare. In it, his SS brother whom he loved came to him. But instead of feeling love, he felt a terrible wave of hatred sweep through him. Then he saw his sister in his dream, but instead of the hatred he had felt for her consciously, he felt an overflowing sense of love for her. The boy awakened in a cold sweat, emotionally torn apart by these feelings.
This story has no happy ending. The flier committed suicide, unable to deal with the conflict. The psychologist reporting this sad case said that deep down the boy had a deep set of good values and had come to know the Nazi cause was wrong. He wrote: "The whole person may begin to emerge, though this may not bring inner peace, but conflict and stress. The movement toward health may sometimes look more like crucifixion than peace of mind."
It is there, though, in that deepest part of our very beings that God can come with transforming, healing power to set us free of our emotional demons, and to use those unique forces within us in ways that no longer need be destructive, but can be creative. Saint Paul finished his advice by saying, "Then you will be able to know the will of God." In other words, as this transforming process takes place, we are drawn closer to God and to the healing, peace-giving power which is ours through the Spirit.
Pray, then.
Questions For Discussion
1. How do you pray?
2. When your prayers aren't answered as you had hoped, how do you feel?
3. Under what conditions do you find yourself best able to pray?
4. Does praying in church seem effective to you? Is the pastoral prayer helpful, or does your mind wander? What about the silent prayer? What about other liturgy?
5. Does it trouble you when you get sleepy, or your mind wanders when you pray?
