My Little Devotional: "Are You There, God?"

(Got distracted yesterday, so I'm posting this today.)

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Between Dark and Dawn”

In a classic case of “be careful what you wish for”, the Mane Six got a somewhat unpleasant surprise early in this episode. After years of always seeming to stay on the sidelines, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna decided to take a more active role in handling the problems in Equestria. Unfortunately, as Equestria is, in general, peaceful and often able to handle small crises on a day-by-day basis, this led the princesses to intervene in every little individual problem of its citizens…including filling missed cupcake orders for bakeries. As a result, the two became overbearing and almost smothering to the Mane Six.

And yet, oddly enough, the Mane Six would go on to hit the opposite extreme later in this episode when they tried to handle the Royal Swanifying Ceremony; in spite of having no experience and totally ignoring the advice of the committee that had been delegated specifically to help with that situation. Disaster nearly resulted there as well before they finally realized the importance of getting help as necessary.

Two different situations. One in which the girls got help for everything they could want and more and ended up loathing it, and another in which the girls tried to do everything on their own and ended up suffering for it.

That brings to mind the topic of today’s devotional…

The Bible encourages us to pray in all situations. “Pray continually,” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6) I feel that prayer is intrinsically important, as it keeps in mind the presence of God all around us and our reliance on him. Taking time out to be quietly intimate with God also helps us to focus on our relationship with him and helps as ascertain what’s truly important as well. It is also a good opportunity for thanksgiving and listening to the command of God.

However…the simple truth is most of us really pray to God when we want to ask for something.

There are two extremes when it comes to this sort of prayer. On one hand, there are those who embrace the “gospel of prosperity”. That God is essentially a cosmic credit card and that they only need to pray and have faith and God will magnify them with material prosperity and miraculous cures for any and all problems. A very appealing message, to be sure—that one essentially can just get everything they want for free from God and they only need to work on having more faith and how to “ask harder”. The other extreme exists in the “casual Christian”, someone on the fence, or maybe even someone who only knows about God and the Sacrifice of Lord Jesus but hasn’t committed to anything. When a disaster or trouble comes up that is dire or life-or-death, they’ll first exhaust any and all secular opportunities they have. They’ll drain their bank accounts, seek every professional they can, and/or use up every last connection with anyone else to try and resolve it. Only when all of those routes are gone and every last worldly mean has failed will they get desperate enough to possibly turn to God and finally pray for a miracle.

Naturally, there are a lot of individuals who fall in between on a wide spectrum, but I want to focus on these two.

Starting with the first perspective, the argument that someone who prays like that might make is that this is a sign of trust in God’s endless blessings and bounty. That if one truly has faith in God, they should expect to get anything and everything they ask for from him as a sign of faith. They might even quote the Bible. “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24)

That’s one way of looking at it but, to me, that’s a sign of something else that’s far more detrimental: dependence. It’s true that God wants to help us and wants us to rely on him, but he also wants us to become more mature and complete individuals. We won’t become that if we never have to work for anything or do anything for ourselves.

If nothing else, it will lead to a complete lack of appreciation for the blessings we receive. (In fact, this was often the case in the Old Testament, from the time of the Exodus right down to the last of the Israelite kings.) It can also lead us to ignore the fact that what we have been entrusted with is usually a sign of stewardship; that we now have a responsibility to use it to further the Kingdom of God rather than hoard it to ourselves. To supplement the quote from Mark above, there’s also the quote from James: “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:3) (A reminder that the Bible always needs to be taken in its entirety; never in a limited context.)

What often leads us to have greater faith and reliance in God is not just sitting back and passively raking in blessings. It’s the fact that when we go out and find ourselves in trying, stressful, and even dangerous situations that we turn to him and, as a result, we are able to persist in faith, hope, and love in spite of them. That’s what leads to greater spiritual growth…not going through life without hardship but rather using every opportunity to make us greater and stronger in the Lord. After all, if one thinks that Christianity is simply about getting personal blessings, one should look to the New Testament. Paul and the Apostles were certainly not rich people with comfortable lifestyles, and they certainly had more than their share of hardships to endure, yet few would argue with their level of faith.

Lord Jesus didn’t give us the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) telling us to “become idle and dependent”. He intended for us to stay active and productive for the Kingdom of God. And the only way that we learn to become more capable, more talented, and more able to deal with difficulty is to face adversity and experiences that force us to change, adapt, and work through them.

Now, for the other perspective, which can be seen as the opposite extreme. All of what I mentioned above can be misconstrued to view that we rarely need to call on God. Coupled with the fact that miracles are rare, one can easily get the jaded viewpoint that God rarely (if ever) intervenes in the affairs of people for their good or bad, and that we are, in fact, more or less on our own. That it’s important that we learn to become self-sufficient and how to handle all of our own problems more or less through our own or worldly means.

This isn’t a good viewpoint either. If we see God as disinterested, remote, or generally unreachable, it won’t be long before we start getting the perspective that God doesn’t see or care at all. Neither about us or about anyone else. And this not only has implications for our prayer life, but our trust in God and our thoughts toward his commands and judgments. What’s the point in praying to God for anything if he’ll just ignore us? What’s the point of keeping God’s commands if he doesn’t really care? What’s the point about worrying about the coming judgment when God really doesn’t have an interest in people? What’s the point of refraining from sin when it’s all the same to God? All are dangerous thoughts to follow.

Yet even if one maintains their faith in God, this is still an unhealthy perspective to take. It leads one to devote themselves to worrying about themselves and taking care of themselves alone while simultaneously having a general lack of care, faith, or trust in anyone else…including God. Tithing or contributions to charity? Don’t do that…we need that money for emergencies. Volunteer and outreach? Don’t do that…we need that time to work longer or unwind after being so stressed from our occupations and home chores. Reach out to that individual? Don’t do that…we have no idea if that person is crazy or a thief and we don’t want to risk them lashing out at us verbally or physically. Go to this community event or activity to try and connect with others? Don’t do that…we’re too busy and need to focus on getting errands and chores done. Contact that group for support in dealing with my dependencies or addictions? Don’t do that…we need to be strong enough to deal with this ourselves. In short, it’s not long before being so concerned about things of the world and looking out for ourselves leads us to act pretty much like everyone else who is also concerned with things of the world and looking out for themselves…and cares nothing about the Kingdom of God.

As mentioned before, God does care for individuals. He affirms that in his word.

“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:26-30)

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:6-7)

And it’s because God cares for us that he wants us to trust him and turn to him in our times of desperation. While God may not give us everything we want, he still wants us to pray continuously for the things we need. He wants to support us for the purpose of doing good and standing firm through adversity and a callous, uncaring world that constantly tries to grind people down. While not to disparage us needing some level of care and responsibility for ourselves, he also wants us to have confidence in coming to him early and often when we feel truly pushed beyond our limits, and to not be discouraged even if an answer doesn’t seem to come right away.

“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” (James 5:13-16)

“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 no food to offer 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; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, 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!”” (Luke 11:5-13)

When it comes to discussing Christianity and faith in God, God’s response to prayers is a point of consternation for many of those who are considering the faith or questioning his existence. Namely why God seems to ignore many prayers or allows so much suffering in the world. For me, part of the reason why is answered when considering the two perspectives above. Too much response would lead us to becoming dependent, idle, callous individuals. Too little response would lead us into becoming self-centered and totally focused on sustaining and providing for ourselves with little regard for sacrifice or risk for others. Rather, as with many things in life, there is no clear black-or-white answer, but somewhere in between. God still wants us to come to him continuously with all of our concerns and cares, but also wants to use many of the hardships in our life to make us more and more like Christ.

The next time you pray, my suggestion is to take a moment or two to evaluate where you are in your prayer life. Is there something you are continuously asking for or something you are asking God to take out of your life that isn’t seeming to get an answer? Prayerfully consider whether or not this is something that you may need to put in some effort of your own to get resolved, or if you need to make a step to seek out additional help for it. Have you not really trusted in God to help you for some time and have grimly concluded that you’re “on your own”? Prayerfully consider turning this “over to God” and trusting in him to get you through it.

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you for guaranteeing that when we pray with sincerity of heart you have pledged to always listen and respond. Please help my prayer life to be pure and with true and eternal values in mind rather than selfish or self-centered motives. And please help me to always remember that you hear and respond when I cry out to you, especially when circumstances in my life tempt me into thinking you don’t listen. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”