Coconut Scratcher, Part 2
This is another coconut scratcher (head scratcher) so take this into consideration. Also, I am feeling lead to jump into a non-essential and likely controversial discussion regarding praying so feel free to skip this devotion.
This morning, two praying messages popped up for me. The first one was in the back of a truck. I was on my way to an appointment and was at the Gage and 29th intersection stop light when I saw a truck in the lane next me to with “How can I pray for you?” painted in big letters on the tailgate. There were other stickers (that I was too far away to see clearly) but that hand written message stood out. I sat there wondering if he got any reaction from people?
“And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:14-22 ESV
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” - Matthew 5:43-44 ESV
The second message came from the second day of my deep dive into Romans 11:33…
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” - Romans 11:33
I started thinking about my mental pictures of how prayer works and eschatology (the theological study of end times) work together. I believe that Christians believe that God will come again and win against the powers of evil. So, does the flow of events change with prayer? Imagine telling someone to leave the church and drive to a destination. There is a really good chance, that any two people drive a different path to the same location. So, if you were to add up all the ways (efficient and not efficient), ways of the route, you would see there were hundreds of alternatives. It is hard to keep the different path concept and the ultimate destination tied under this dynamic relationship.
Another mental picture is the final scene from the movie “War Games.” In the movie, an artificial intelligence computer (they didn’t use that term when the movie was made) decided to start WWIII against the Soviet Union and was hacking into the safe guards that prevented it from launching missiles. A young Matthew Broderick gets the computer to play tic-tac-toe to figure out that there are no win situations. Ultimately, the AI computer realizes that a global nuclear war is a war that does not have a winner. In the process, the computer runs 1000’s of simulations using all the strategy assumptions for a nuclear war developed all resulting in the same thing… an untenable outcome.
In my today devotion, Dr. Sproul rhetorically asked whether prayer changes God’s mind. He expounded that prayer doesn’t change God’s mind (or more accurately, His plan), because he knows everything so there is nothing we could bring to him in prayer that would add to his knowledge. Alternatively, a worse situation would be praying, thinking that God’s intentions are foolish or evil apart from our plea.
No, what prayer does is change us. When we pray for healing, we are opening ourselves up to God. We are admitting that we cannot control or manipulate things on our own and search God’s intervention. When we pray for a family member or friend, we are opening ourselves up to the interrelation God wants us to have with each other. Remember Jesus, when asked what the greatest commandment was, said:
“And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’” - Matthew 22:37-40 ESV
Jesus laid it out for us that the vertical relationship with God in worshipping him is the most important but right behind it is the horizontal relationship we have with each other.
This discussion reminds me of John Calvin’s axiom from yesterday:
Finitum non capax infinitium - “the finite cannot contain or grasp the fullness of the infinite.”
However, what we do know…
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” - Colossians 4:2-6
