Until recently, I was convinced that anyone expecting to receive something for which they prayed to God, was kidding themselves. I felt this way for three reasons. Firstly, everything we know about the universe suggests that it works according to what we call the laws of nature, originally established by God. Why would God respond to prayers to change the perfection He created? Secondly, the world has just over 8 billion people. Even if only 1 tenth of 1% of their prayers arrived simultaneously, that would require Him to respond to 8 million prayers at the same time. Somewhat unlikely, wouldn’t you agree? Thirdly, if my
prayer was that someone else do something for me (or stop doing something I dislike), how could God intervene without overpowering that person’s free will? In summary, I felt that prayers might give a person comfort, but not much more.
Why have I changed my mind? Why do I now suspect that God is messing with my mind? If you choose to pursue these questions with me, are we at the same starting point? Have you accepted that God loves each one of us and wants us to choose to prepare ourselves to spend an eternity of intimacy with Him? If you harbour any doubt about any of this, would you be willing to consider the thinking outlined in Chapter 16 of Discovering Life’s Purpose and in the Meaning of Life Video Series? If so, where next?
Firstly, can having created an existence that can operate perfectly on its own, prevent God from managing it? Well, no. But why would He choose to manage it? Well, is it not abundantly clear that we cannot manage His creation, and His will for us in it, on our own? After all, how are we doing on the easier of the two – managing our environment? On the more difficult of the two – achieving His will for us – are we even clear on His standards? We could be if we studied Jesus' teachings about those standards in All the Alls in The Greatest Commandment and The Neighbour in The Greatest Commandment. Might that study explain why Jesus warned us that many are called but few are chosen. Might it be because many of us try to do God’s will on our own? Because God wants us to succeed, and knows that we cannot do it alone, would He not provide us with all the help for which we ask in prayer? But how could He respond to the prayers of 8 million of us at once?
On this question, let’s do the math. Scientists know the universe contains billions of galaxies of which ours – the Milky Way – contains 100 billion stars. Because scientists also know that all this was created simultaneously in the Big Bang, would dealing simultaneously with a mere 8 million people not be a walk in the park for our creator? But how could God intervene without, at times, overpowering our free will?
If God forced any of us to do something, would that not take away our free will? Well, yes! But what if God’s intervention did not force a result? What if God merely altered the circumstances we encounter, to which we can respond as we choose? What if God merely put ideas into our minds, which we can choose to discover (as we describe in Is Your Creator Awaiting a Response to Its Constant Outreach?) or ignore? Could God’s offer to help us be by exposing our minds to situations and ideas? If so, over to us?
If God wants us to choose to prepare for eternal intimacy with Him, must it not be up to us to indicate our choice by asking for His help? Might that be the prayer that is always answered? Might God be helping those who pray for His help and then act on it? Is the ball in our court?
Del H. Smith conducts research into life’s meaning and is the award-winning author of the Amazon Best Seller, Discovering Life’s Purpose.