What is prayer for?

[AI translation] Pascal once said, "Almost all the difficulties of life arise from the simple fact that we are not able to sit quietly in a room". If only we could meet God in that silence, how healing it would be! All our fears, anxieties and problems would be quieted in the peace and quiet of God! We have every possibility of this. One of God's greatest gifts to His children is that they can open their hearts to Him! They can tell Him their problems, they can talk to Him about their problems - so they can pray to Him! This question is particularly topical because today is the beginning of the great ecumenical week of prayer of Christians who have joined the World Council of Churches. Today, and every day of the week ahead, God's children across the globe are giving thanks, confessing sin and praying for solutions to the problems of the Church and the world today, in different languages but with the same leitmotif everywhere. Our congregation joins, as it has done every year, in the great world prayer community. That is why, as an introduction to the Week of Prayer, I would like to talk about a problem of prayer. What is the spiritual activity we call prayer for?We may ask this question because we are modern people. We breathe in uncertainty and doubt about the old truths of faith, including prayer. The certainty that our prayers will be heard and answered by a divine person: this certainty has been badly shaken in the faith of many people today. It is not only external difficulties that hold one back from the practice of prayer - that is, obstacles such as not having the time and space for silence - but the radical doubt whether such an action makes any sense at all! How can one imagine that God listens to prayers addressed to Him? What is God even supposed to do with all those pleas, supplications and groans? After all, how many times do opposing interests on both sides ask God to help their cause? What should God do in such situations? The question also arises as to whether those who claim that prayer is nothing more than a religious attempt to soothe oneself, like a pious auto-suit, the result of which is that the heart is calmed, reconciled, at peace. Prayer is a psychological process in the soul of the person who prays. Many times one has the experience of having asked for something in prayer and nothing has come of it. Is there then any point at all in asking, in the exercise of prayer?
When Jesus once spoke about prayer and taught his disciples to pray, he said, "Your Father knows well what you need" (Mt 6,8b) I feel from this word of Jesus that there has been a shift of emphasis in our prayer practice and habit in the wrong direction. We think of prayer as an occasion of recourse. When we pray, we open our thoughts and plans to God and ask him to sanctify them, to make them his own, to give him his blessing. We imagine what God should do for us and for the world. We tell him how to take care of us. We ask, and then, if he does not do what we ask, we are disappointed: lo and behold, our prayers are in vain! I am not saying that we should not list our requests before God, but that this is not the point of prayer! It is something else.
I once witnessed a case: a young husband and father received a letter from his wife, who was very far away. In the same letter was a small piece of paper written by his three-year-old daughter. This little piece of paper was, of course, nothing more than a jumble of lines scrawled together in a pencil. But however incomprehensible it was, the young father looked at it with great delight, for it was his child's creation! His own sweet daughter, who thought of him from so far away, and sought to connect with him with childlike trust and longing. When she showed me the incomprehensible cricket-cross, I thought that perhaps such a meaningless and confused jumble was the prayer of God's children. But as this father looked on moved, so our Father is pleased to listen. For this prayer is the expression of His children seeking a relationship with Him! If God didn't know much better than we do, and had to glean what we need from our prayers, we really wouldn't have much good to look forward to! Our whole life would be a mistake! Our prayer life is often nothing more than a confused, meaningless jumble! Fortunately, in the words of Jesus, "Our Heavenly Father knows well what we need!
It also means that God hears our prayers in a very different way than we think! He listens - that's for sure! There are many promises in the Scriptures! Jesus testifies to it many times. But that doesn't mean that he obeys our word, that he literally grants our requests! He not only listens to our words, but he also hears the side-talk behind our words, the unspoken thoughts! He hears those "unspeakable prayers" even through the jumbled nonsense of our words. They may not be conscious in us, but they arise from our real needs. The case of the Apostle Paul is a classic example. He had a problem that was bothering him greatly. He calls it "a thorn was given into my flesh, an angel of Satan to torment me" (2 Cor 12:7). He saw this eternally painful point in his life - whatever it was, it is not important now - as an obstacle to his ministry, making all his work impossible. He was convinced that his whole apostolic ministry was at stake because of his misery. If this thorn remained in him, he would be able to accomplish little of what he was called to do. So he pleaded with God to take it away from him. Deliver him from this satanic torment.
What a great matter this must have been to the apostle is evident from the fact that, fourteen years later, he still remembers exactly how he pleaded with the Lord three times for this. On the first occasion, perhaps, he simply laid the misery and burden of his life before God, confident that God would respond. But God did nothing! Then he began to pray again, but still no relief! No answer! For the third time he fell on his knees and asked that this wretched obstacle that was troubling him so much be removed from his life. What happened then has been a household word in the church of Christ ever since. God replied, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my power is done through weakness." This particular thorn - it seems - was needed! This thorn was needed so that this man could fulfil his apostolic calling as an instrument through which Jesus could work! Paul asked for the thorn to be taken from his body so that he could fulfil his apostolic ministry more fully. But God did not take the thorn from Paul's body so that he could more fully exercise his apostolic ministry! Did he not hear the plea of this child of God? Of course he did! Very much so! Just not the way Paul thought! Differently, more fully! In a better, higher way! Here again, what Jesus said has been confirmed: Your Heavenly Father knows well what you need before you ask. Did Paul pray in vain? No, because it was in the very act of praying three times, a very effective prayer, that he became convinced that the thorn was not an obstacle, but a help in the fulfilment of his vocation! It was precisely this thorn that he needed!
How many times do we, too, ask God in our prayers for deliverance from burdens, troubles, sufferings, which He cannot take away because we need them! The child also often wants to be freed from the burden of schooling and discipline, yet the parent does not take it away because the child needs that burden! But if God knows what we need anyway, and maybe He doesn't give us what we ask for, should we not tell Him our requests now? Of course! Go ahead! Everything! Only not like a beggar to a rich stranger, but like a child to his father! A beggar is only interested in the donation he receives, not in the one from whom he receives it. No matter from whom he receives it! And for the child, the most important thing is the father, the relationship, the community of love and togetherness. Once this is there, it is no longer important what this father gives, because he will certainly give good things. So Paul says: "in your prayers and supplications, always present your requests to God with thanksgiving". Then suddenly, as if he had not been speaking of specific requests, he continues, "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Phil 4:6-7).
But just now it was about wishes! What happens to them? These desires are there before God, resting in God's hands. Leave them to God, He knows what to do with them. And for you, the important thing is that in the peace of God your heart and your mind are at rest. This is the essence of all prayer! What is important is not what happens to us, but what happens to us, what does it bring out of us, what does it shape us into? A thorn can be both a curse and a blessing. A situation can be heaven or hell. A burden, a suffering can be a hindrance or a help! The same storm can break or lift! We are free to open our requests to God! All our requests! God hears and answers. But the most profound motive in all prayer is to find God, to be filled with the peace of God, which banishes all fear and anxiety! So that we may continue on the path of our lives as happy children, guided and held by the hand of their father. That is what prayer is for! It is not about bending God to my will, but about bending my will to God's will. When we cast anchor and cling to the shore, we are not pulling the shore to us, but on the contrary, we are pulling ourselves to the shore. Prayer does not draw God to us, but draws us to God. It connects our small and very limited will with His mighty divine will so that God can accomplish through us certain things that we could not. God's almighty will works through our weak will! And we can accomplish things that are beyond our power.
Whoever prays connects himself to God. A great pray-er once said, "In my prayer I seldom ask for certain things. More and more I ask God for Himself, for the certainty that my will and His will will not diverge, that we may meet in all the small and great questions of life. If I receive Him in communion of love, my prayer is answered and fruitful". Ask God for God Himself, as He gave Himself in Jesus! Then you will never pray in vain, and all your other needs will be met! If only we could also immerse ourselves in the real mystery and mystical reality of prayer in next week's World Communion!
To walk with God, to dwell,
To be scented with holy life,
In true faith, do not waver:
Jesus Christ teach us!
Teach us to pray.
(Cant. 474. verse 1)
Amen
Date: 17 January 1960.