Does Prayer Work?

When I logged into Facebook this morning, the first post that popped up on my news feed was a question a friend had posted: "Do you believer prayer works?" 

As could probably be predicted, several comments had already been posted, all of which were either an exuberant "yes!" of blind faith or a more guarded "yes, but...."

The "yes, but..." is our way of getting out of a sticky theological situation. Nobody wants to say that prayer doesn't work, but the truth is that most of us have spoken a prayer or two into heaven and received nothing but silence in return. Most of us have knelt at the bedside of sick friends and loved ones only to watch them die anyway. Most of us have fallen to our knees somewhere just out of sight of rock bottom and turned the corner to find the rocks waiting for us anyway. Most of us have prayed earnestly for the chance to take that next opportunity, to take that next step, to do that new thing and found ourselves stuck in the same ruts, doing the same things, standing on the same step. Most of us think that yes, prayer probably works, but we've never experienced it. Or rarely so. 

What makes this so sticky is that when prayer doesn't "work," we're left trying to explain why it hasn't. Usually, this means one of two things. Either we blame ourselves for not praying "right," for not doing prayer the way God would like us to do prayer, and therefore, our prayer is fruitless. Or we resign ourselves to some unknowable will of God that is probably good and we just don't understand it right now, concluding that God does whatever He wants to do anyway, with or without our input. 

Neither of these answers is particularly satisfying. Nor is either theologically sound. You can probably see why. If we say that prayer depends on how we do it, then we put all of the pressure and all of the responsibility on our own shoulders, as though we could control God if we could just get it right or as if God is so stingy that He's waiting on just the right formula, something worthy of presentation to Him. If we say that God does whatever He's going to do, we devalue prayer entirely and at the same time, create sort of an enigma of God. Who can possibly know Him? Our very personal, intimately relational God cringes when this is our conclusion.

So when we have this question - Do you believe prayer works? - our answer ought not to be an exuberant "yes!" or a guarded "Yes, but...." Our answer ought to be another question:

What, exactly, do you mean by "works"?

See, we've gotten the idea that prayer "works" when we get what we want. When we or our loved ones are healed. When our finances straighten out. When doors open. When friends forgive. When we're pulled away from the pit. When God hears our request and answers with the same exuberant "yes!" we are so quick to give Him, then prayer works. 

But that's not what prayer is. Prayer is bringing your heart before God, not your requests. Even Philippians, in one of its most famous verses, makes this distinction. Don't be anxious about anything, but instead, with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, bring your requests before God. Notice it says prayer and petition - two separate things. Petition is a request we make; prayer is a heart we bring.

And prayer brings us into the heart of God. 

When I pray, I don't expect God to give me everything I want in the world. Sometimes, I hope He will, but I don't expect Him to. That's not why I go to God in prayer. When I pray, I expect God to remind me of what it's like to lay my heart wide open in His presence, to expose myself, to be vulnerable...and to be loved. I expect not that God will approve my request, but that He will accept my prayer - that He will respond in His very personal, intimately relational way and that by the time I have reached my amen, I find that all I actually want is to have this kind of God and...God has given me that. 

The same is true, by the way, when I ask you to pray for me. Yes, it'd be nice if God would hear our petition and grant me this or that specific result. But I find that most often, when I ask you to pray for me, I discover anew what it's like to be in the very heart of God. Whatever situation I'm facing, I feel lost. I feel alone. More than anything else, I desperately need to know that God is still there, that He still cares, that there's a place in His heart for me. That our very personal, intimately relational God cares even about me. That I am this God's person, that I am His friend (and so much more). And if, as you pray for me, all that happens is that I come again into the heart of God, then our prayer has been answered. 

No matter what.

Does prayer really work? That depends on what you mean by that little word "work." Does it get us everything we want? No. I don't think any of us can say that we've ever been granted every petition. but petition isn't prayer. So does prayer really work? Does it bring us back into the very heart of God?

Every time. 

Therefore

We do what we do as God's people because it somehow shapes us to bear more of the image of God in our world. God has commanded us to do what we do for this very reason - it is consistent with His image, of which we are the image-bearers, and it draws us into the heart of God. 

But let's not forget that God is not any of the many things He does; He simply is. If we are to be the image of God in the world, we must do less and simply be more.

This is reflected well in the verse that says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" and also in words like "be holy because God is holy." Because we have so brainwashed ourselves into thinking that life is all about action, we have turned even "perfect" and "holy" into things that we do. As if we could "do" perfect. Or holy, for that matter.

We've turned these words into moral qualities. Holiness is no longer the essence of God; it is the morality of Him. Therefore, if any of us wants to be holy, we must simply do moral and holy things - like love one another, give generously, pray boldly, worship humbly, or a whole host of other activities we might deem holy. If any of us wants to be perfect, we must simply do perfect things - turn away from sin, tell the truth, not screw up. It just feels natural at this point to talk this way, and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to live perfect and holy lives.

It's a dangerous idea. When you think that you must live holy by doing moral and holy things, then it's not long before you start to think that God must be holy when He does moral and holy things. As though the entire nature of God could so easily be articulated. When you think you must be perfect by not screwing up, then you think that God must be perfect simply because He does not make mistakes. When you become perfect and holy on the basis of what you do or do not do in this world, God, too, becomes perfect and holy the same way.

But perfect and holy are not the outerworkings of either God or men; they are the very heart of them.

God is holy simply because He is holy. His actions may reflect His holiness, but they do not define it. The very essence of Him is holy. God is perfect simply because He is perfect. His actions may reflect His perfectness, but they do not define it. The very essence of Him is perfect. And if we are created in the image of God, if we are His image-bearers in the world, then the same is true of us. 

We simply are perfect and holy.

And when we talk about being "perfect," we're not really talking about not messing up. That's a different understanding of perfect than we ought to get from the Scriptures. When God says "Be perfect, therefore, because I am perfect," He's talking not about a moral or behavioral quality, but a quality of completeness. Wholeness. Finishedness. He's talking about the idea that there is not one thing that could be added to or taken away from us that would make us more whole. The fullness of who we are is real. It's done. It's perfect. We lack nothing, nor do we have too much. We're perfect.

And if we simply are perfect and holy, then our challenge is not to discipline ourselves into becoming these things by the way we live in the world. That won't do any good. We don't become perfect and holy by living in certain moral ways. No. Our challenge is to live out of the very essence of who we are, out of the very heart of who God is, and to simply be perfect and holy. Every unstrained breath we draw is this very thing: perfect and holy. Every unencumbered gift we give is this very thing: perfect and holy. Every contented step, every perfect peace, every confident assurance is this very thing: perfect and holy. It's who we are when we're not worried about who we are, when we're not trying to be something else. We are perfect and holy, just as our Father is perfect and holy. 

It's why we absolutely must stop thinking that we ought to do as God does in the world. That's not what He's called us to. We were never called to do.

We have always been called to be. So be. Be perfect and holy. It's the very essence of who you are, created in the image of God. 

Thus Saith the Lord

One of the great tensions we feel as the people of God is the tension between how we are supposed to live and why we are supposed to live that way. Yesterday, we saw Jesus make the powerful point that we are still a people bearing the image of God. The question is: 

How then do we live?

It's not as easy a question as it seems on the surface. On the surface, we point to all of the commands and laws and examples of Scripture and say, clearly, this is how we live. We live in accordance with the laws in the Old Testament, with the Ten Commandments front and center. We live in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount, refusing even to think lustful or angry thoughts. We live in accordance with the example of Jesus, the preaching of Paul, the foundation of the early church.

We live in these ways because this is how God has told us to live. Thus saith the Lord.

Yes and...not quite.

For a great number of persons who call themselves Christians, this is enough. It's enough to say that we must do (or not do) a certain thing simply because God told us to do (or not do) said thing. It's enough to say that we live a certain way because the Bible tells us to live a certain way. Case closed. 

But there's a danger in this thinking, a very real and present danger. Ready? This line of thought does not require an intimate relationship with a personal God. It doesn't require a personal God at all. 

It's the same principle as following the laws in the Constitution. We do so because we are Americans, because we place fundamental value on the ideas that shape us as a nation. Because we love America. But it doesn't require America to love us back. And it doesn't really tell us, or the world, what America is. America, by her Constitution, is a place where people speak freely, own guns, are protected from unreasonable government intrusion, vote, pay taxes, and die. Absolutely none of this reveals the heart of America or the heart of her people. It's vastly impersonal, very bureaucratic, and missing the essential human element.

That's what happens when we live the Bible just because God said to. Without a personal God behind the commands to live our life in a certain way, we're saying much the same thing. The people of God are a people who don't take the Lord's name in vain, who don't murder or lie or cheat or steal, who share resources with one another, who go to church, pray, and die. Absolutely none of this reveals the heart of God or of His people. It just...is.

And that's a shame. For our God is an amazingly personal, awesomely intimate, absolutely relational God. And we, as His image-bearers, ought to be putting this truth front and center in our world. But it requires going beyond a simple "because God says so."

We have to ask why God says so. What is it about God that leads Him to say one thing over another? What is it about the nature of God that requires a person created in His image not to lie, cheat, steal, or murder? What does it reveal about the image of God when we live in the way that God tells us to live?

Because that's the heart of it. Every rule, every law, every commandment, every example is God shaping us to be more and more His image-bearers. Every little thing God tells us to do or not do, every way God tells us to live or not live, is intended to make manifest His image in the world. 

We do not murder not because God told us not to, but because God places an incredible value on life. As His image-bearers in the world, we must do the same. We do not lie because God is truth. As His image-bearers, we must bear truth. We do not steal because God is sufficient. As His image-bearers, we must show sufficiency, contentment. We do not cheat because God is omnipotent; He can do anything. As His image-bearers, we must live in a way that we can do anything. We don't need the world's shortcuts. 

We love because Jesus loved. We laugh because Jesus laughed. We cry because Jesus cried. We heal because Jesus healed. We pray because Jesus prayed. So often we read the story of Jesus and think how much He is like us, how He must have cried because we cry, laughed because we laugh, prayed because we pray. That's not it at all. Jesus was before we ever were, and it is we who are created in His image, not He in ours. As much as all the little things He did reveal our image in Him, so much more do all the little things we do reveal His image in us. 

So we have to stop saying that we do what we do just because God tells us to do it. That's not enough. Thus saith the Lord is not sufficient to capture the essence of the Lord Himself. We must ask what the heart of God is that is revealed in His thus saith. We must ask not just what God demands of us, but why He demands it - what it reflects of His image when we, who are made in His image, get this one thing right. When we go beyond thus saith and hit the heart of "I Am." 

When who we are and what we do both requires and reveals the amazingly personal, awesomely intimate, absolutely relational God who has called us to be His people, His image, in the world.  

To Caesar

The Pharisees were sure they had Him this time. There was no way He could answer this question without offending either one side or the other. He'd have to make enemies. So they sent their fiercest questioner and a few Romans and asked Him,

Teacher, is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

There's no way around it. Jesus will right now, once and for all, declare whether He is first a resident of Rome or a citizen of Heaven. There are no two ways about it. Or are there?

Show me a coin.

That was His first answer. Show Me the coin that you use to pay the taxes. Let Me see it. He turned the coin over and over in His hand, studying carefully both sides of the piece of precious metal. Then He looked up from the coin into the eyes of the Pharisee and asked him,

Whose image is on this coin?

Caesar's, of course. It is, after all, a Roman coin. And this was the custom of kings and emperors and governors all throughout history. They marked the items in their own territory with their own image. They had their own face carved into the coinage. They sealed their documents with their own unique signet ring, a special ring that was pressed into the wet mold of a document to create an impression of the king's mark. Anything sealed in such a way could not be undone. So of course Caesar's face was all over his currency; it was Roman currency.

Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's. 

This could have been the end of it. Case closed. Conversation done. Question asked, question answered. But that's not Jesus' style. That's not how He operates. Just as every turned to walk quietly away, their question answered with amazing wisdom, their latest effort to trap the Teacher defeated, Jesus adds...

And give to God what is God's.

Slowly, they started to turn around and look at Him again. Their eyes met His. A deep love burned inside His eyes. The coins were Caesar's because they had his image all of them. They knew that much. And the faithful Jew, when Jesus sprung this last sentence on them, knew also this:

Let us make man in our image....

They heard those words from Genesis 1 echo through their hearts, even before Jesus's pointed words sank fully into their heads. Each and every one of those present had the image of Caesar on his coins, but he had the image of God on his very being. Jesus, in one powerful breath, declares Himself both a resident of Rome and a citizen of Heaven, and He calls all those who hear to be the same.

Give your money to Rome; it was theirs to begin with. Money is just a thing, it's something man came up with all on his own. So what does it matter if you give it back to him? But you...you are the image of God, something God came up with out of His incredible love. So give yourself back to Him. All of you. For this is what matters most.

It's interesting how often we read this story and easily see the first conclusion - Caesar's face is on the coin; it's his coin; pay his taxes with it - and then read Jesus' more poignant second statement...and start looking around, trying to figure out what is God's in this world. It's interesting how often we conclude that giving to God what is God's means finding God's hand, His design, in the world around us and giving honor to that in some way. But what Jesus says here is not to look for God's hand in the world; He says to look for God's image in the world. 

And there's only one place to find it: you. Me. Men and women. Humankind. 

So give to Caesar what is Caesar's, all the things this world has come up with for its own intents and purposes. But give to God what is God - the sacred men and women created in His own image. 

Start with you. 

God and Government

Today is the official start of primary season for the presidential election. And as always, there's much talk over the "evangelical vote" - who are the "Christians" voting for? And the Christians themselves are asking this, too.

Who are we voting for this year?

Don't worry; this post is not about to get political. This is still a theology blog. But that's why I bring it up at all: it's an interesting theological question. Or at least, we've made it one.

This question of who we ought to vote for as Christians is interesting because it's not a question that God's people have historically had to ask. Not until the recent few hundred years of man's history, anyway. And it's not something that's dealt with in the Bible at all. Israel was a people, not a nation, for much of their history. They became a nation once they entered the Promised Land, and they made it official with their first king around 1 Samuel 8. 

But Israel didn't elect their king; God anointed him. The people simply crowned the anointed one of God.

Fast forward a little bit to the exile, and Israel doesn't have a king any more; now, she has governors. But she didn't elect her governors; they were appointed by her captors. The kings of Babylon, Assyria, and Persia named Israel's governors. 

Fast forward still further, and Israel doesn't even have governors any more. They're no longer a nation, but once again a people - a people living inside the nation of Rome. And they don't get a say in who Rome's emperor or governors are. 

In fact, the only leaders that God's people ever get to choose for themselves are the leaders in the church. The Old Testament priests were anointed and chosen by God. It's not until we get to the church that we see God's people doing their first electing, and it's not political. There are guidelines for choosing elders and deacons, people to serve in the church. Guidelines for which preachers to listen to, for whom we should allow to speak. And it's easy to say that these are the rules by which we choose all of our leaders.

But that's just not the case. Because we're not electing any elders this year.

We're electing politicians.

And here's the difference, and I'm going to say this even though it will be unpopular with a lot of people: America is a country; she is not a church. 

As Christians, we've somewhere gotten this idea that she ought to be a church. That America ought to be a Christian nation (and historical note? It never was. A good many of Christians helped found America and establish her structure, but she has never been a Christian nation). We think America ought to espouse the values of the church to the world. She ought to be committed to the poor, to the orphans and widows, to justice just as Jesus was. That she ought to speak love and truth and grace and mercy. That America ought to be the place to which the whole world comes in order to seek God and worship freely. 

But that's not America's story. That's not America's job. That's our job. As Christians. Not as Americans. And part of the reason, I think, that it's so tempting for us to pick a president the way we pick an elder is because we want to take that burden off ourselves. We want America to do it for us. We want America to evangelize so that we don't have to. We want America to worship so that we don't have to. We want America to preach so that we don't have to. And maybe we'll even listen. 

But that's not America's story, and it's not the story of God's people, either. God's people have never expected Rome to do their work for them. God's people never trusted Egypt to do their work for them. God's people have always been a people within a people, a system of love and truth and grace and mercy within a system of legislature and governance and rule that has not been their own. God's people have always been charged with being residents of Rome and citizens of Heaven...and they've never had a lot of say in what Rome does.

That's a little bit different for us now, since we have a say in our government. But there's no precedent in Scripture for making our country a church, our politicians a pastorate. What we are told, repeatedly, and what Jesus sets for us as an example, is that we are to be good residents of Rome. 

So what does that mean when we cast our vote? Who are we voting for this year?

We're voting for the candidate who is best fit to lead Rome. We're voting for the candidate that we believe has the best experience, the most qualifications, the strength of character...to lead Rome. We're not picking an elder. We're not voting for the guy (or gal) who somehow turns America into a Christian nation. We're not electing a President who will stand as our representative of God in this world; he will stand only as our representative of America in this world. Just America. 

And then we will stand up as the church. That's our story.