Myths about Prayer You Might Believe

Myth:  Persistent prayers move God to action.

We often believe that if we pray long enough, God will finally give in to our prayers.  We think that we are just one prayer away from getting him to give us what we feel we need. 

Myth:  Particular prayers move God to action.

We often think that if we just prayer the right prayer God will answer us.  Sometime the Lord’s Prayer seems like a good choice to get God’s attention.  Other times some other biblical prayer is promoted as the real way to get God going.  Sometimes people says that only a extemporaneous heart-wrought prayer will work.  But whatever it is, we come to believe that if we figure it out the right prayer, then God will act.

Myth:  Prayers from particular people move God to action.

Especially when we think our prayers are not being heard, we often turn to specific other people to help.  We ask our pastor to pray for us.  We ask the person who appears to us to be strong in the faith.  We reach out to the resident prayer warrior in the congregation or community.  If we get the right person, then God will act we hope.

Myth:  Prayers from masses of people move God to action

This is the most popular modern notion of prayer.  The real way to move God to action is to bombard him with requests from every corner of the earth.  We call the person in charge of getting the email or phone prayer chain going.  We make sure that our name occurs on every church’s prayer list.  We send out a facebook post to ask for prayers from friends and strangers alike. We believe that if God hears from enough people, he will have to act.

The Truth:  God’s love motivates God to deliver his people from evil.

Luke 18:2-8   He [Jesus] said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.  And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’  For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man,  yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’"  And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says.  And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?, Will he delay long over them?   I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.”

God is not the unrighteous judge. Far from it. He does not need to be pestered into doing sometime but loves to give his people justice. He does not make us come day after day before he will hear us. He does not delay long. He is not slow. He gives justice speedily. 

We keep praying and ask others to pray not because we believe that God will not act if we do not pray but because we are confident that God loves to act on our behalf.  God sending of his Son to the cross for us and for our salvation even while we were still sinners makes that abundantly clear, doesn’t it?

God does not need to be manipulated into acting.  He loves to give his people justice and deliver them from evil.  He does it in his perfect time, sometimes quickly to our minds and other times quickly only in his mind.  Sometimes in this life and perfectly in the new life to come. 

We pray because he answers prayer.  We do not pray in order to make him answer prayer.  He answers prayers because he loves his chosen people. Thanks be to him.