Sunday February 10, 2008 | Greg Boyd
Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' And suppose the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened.
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Why does it seem like some prayers work while others don’t give us the results we want? If our prayers don’t seem to work, who is to blame? God? Ourselves? Others? To begin to understand prayer, we must break free from a simplistic and commonly held “magical view” of prayer. There are many variables that affect prayer and faith and how they work together.
A magical view of prayer will lead people to blame God, themselves or others for prayers that look like they have failed. In order to deconstruct this common way of praying, one needs to see some of the variables that affect prayer.
This is the situation we find ourselves in. We don’t know how strong or how many we’re up against. We don’t know how strong or how many angels are fighting on our side. We don’t know how the irrevocable effects of angelic and human decisions made throughout history are impacting this situation. We usually don’t know how many people are praying or how persistent they’ve been or how much faith they have. We don’t know the level of faith of people we’re praying for. We don’t know how the necessary stability of the world plays into our prayer. We can know God’s ideal will for a situation, but can’t see the big picture that God sees and how this affects what is and is not possible in our particular situation.
And this is why we can’t ordinarily know why in response to prayer Suzie gets an egg and Johnny seems to get a scorpion, which is why we can’t say the scorpion was God’s fault or Johnny’s fault.