It has often been asked by mainstream/ orthodox/ canonical Christians; "What is the point of petitioning God in prayer?" - of asking God for something to happen?
Such prayer seems redundant, or even a mistake. It seems to make no sense.
And this for strong reasons. Because, by standard Catholic and Protestant theology, God is omniscient, so He already knows what we want and what we need; and also because God is omnipotent, such that a loving and personal God will already be doing anything which He knows to be good for us.
To ask for divine interventions in this world therefore seems at best futile; and at worse to imply that the person praying knows-better-than-God what God ought to be doing, as if God needed "reminding" of His duty!
But petitionary prayer (by a broad definition) is exactly what would be required and valuable by a God who desires to enlist Men as participators in the work of creation.
This because such a God recognizes that each Man has the potential to bring something new, additional, and unique to ongoing creation.
Man's participation in creation is thus not only temporarily beneficial for the Man doing it, but also of everlasting value for divine creation.
From such an understanding of reality; it can be seen that in prayer we may actually participate in the ongoing work of divine creation, and thereby change its content and direction.
This may happen, not by asking-for God to grant us favours and having such wishes granted; but instead via the (albeit temporary and partial) alignment of our will with God's will.
If such alignment is happening in a prayer, then that prayer will change reality - and change it always in harmony with the direction and methods of divine creation (because such prayer is in harmony with the divine).
Such a perspective changes and expands the concept of prayer, so that "prayer" will include all ways by which we might align our motivations with God's motivations; and in doing so actively (and it must be active for there to be participation rather than merely contemplation).
If we can actively join-with God in our thinking and acting; then we are thereby joining in the work of divine creating.
...Of course, even when this happens - in this mortal world of change, death and evil, it can only happen to some incomplete degree and for a limited time.
Nonetheless; it is a foretaste, an actual experience, of the eternal reality of resurrected life in Heaven.
2 comments:
This is an incredible insight. I have never heard petitionary prayer explained in this way, but it is quite obviously true. It is another example of how essential it is to shed the omnies from God, everything starts to line up and make sense.
@Rich - Thanks.
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