Whose mind is changing?

Why is it that we so often pray hoping that God will change his mind, but rarely do we pray to God asking for him to change our minds?

People like to say that prayer is talking to God, and that is true. But I think that our language reveals something important about our prayer life. I think that most of us look at prayer as a one-way conversation. We talk to God and expect God to answer our prayers. The answer we expect is more like the answer we expect at the McDonald’s drive-thru than when we talk to a friend.

At McDonald’s, we talk to the little speaker and hope than when we pull around to the window, we will be handed what we asked for. Often we do the same with God. But instead of paying at the first window, our “payment” to God is that we go to church.

But what if we looked at a prayer more as a conversation with a friend? What if we spent as much time – if not more time – listening for God as we do talking at God? How would that change our prayer life?

Prayer is praise, confession, petition, and submission all in one essential dialogue. Prayer calls us to speak of good and evil, while asking not just for what we want, but – more importantly – what we need. It is a dialogue, a conversation, where we have the opportunity to interact with the Creator of the universe.

We have made prayer the opposite of what it was intended to be. Most of the time, we ask God for things hoping that he will be shaped into our image and provide our desires. The reality is that prayer should be transforming us into God’s image and helping us ask for God’s desires.

In Psalm 46:1,10-11, David writes the following:

¹God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble…

¹⁰He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth.”

¹¹The LORD Almighty is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Maybe the reason we often don’t feel like God is an ever-present help is because we are so busy talking, that we don’t take time to listen. Be still…the LORD Almighty is with us.

 

shine!
Jason