prayer turns heads

There has been so much said and written about prayer, but I realized I haven't ever blogged on this topic. What could I say? What could I add to what has been said? Maybe I can't add much to your knowledge of the subject, but I have pondered prayer. I especially have thought about the effect core assumptions have on how someone thinks, feels and acts regarding prayer.

If you have read earlier blogs and maybe even read my recent book, you would know I see everything through the lens of core assumptions. So, why would my view of prayer be any different?

First, there is the concept of general prayer. This is what people of all religions, and even no religion, do when they are deeply distressed. They cry out to something outside themselves for relief, hoping there is something or someone OUT THERE who can help in their difficult circumstances. The motivation is simply to "cry out" since there is nothing outside themselves that they actually trust can help. This type of prayer is common to all since the beginning of time and likely does not "turn heads." It is not an unusual site.

This general prayer then becomes specific when the prayer is petitioning someone or something OUT THERE that the person praying assumes can help in their difficulty. Both types, general and specific petitions are likely associated with what I have called an "outcome based" orientation. This is human nature. It is natural to make sense of things based on circumstances experienced by one's sensory faculties.

Interestingly, this "outcome based" view of prayer does not escape Christians. I hear way too many sermons and teachings on prayer that are based in the Bible but are heard and understood within the context of desiring God to affect circumstances. I recently heard a good preacher expounding on Elijah's prayers and how God answered him. Implied in everything said about prayer was the circumstantial outcomes associated with praying.

Christians who pray in public may turn heads of a secular society, but are hard pressed to explain why and how God answers prayers when the focus is on the circumstances targeted by the prayers. I heard an old country preacher say one time, "we pray for healing but healing is only a reprieve, we all die sometime." He was not poking fun at or trivializing prayer, he was making a point that prayer is much more or different than getting God to attend to circumstances.

Prayer is not about turning God's head to us, but turning our heads to God. 

Prayer is an abiding relationship with God in which our attention is on the Kingdom in which we live ETERNALLY NOW, not the circumstances that occupy our temporary earthly existence. How God uses circumstances in our life often remains a mystery. Prayer invokes our eyes of faith away from trusting sensory experiences to intimacy with a God that is jealous for our affection. 



This is what glorifies God. When a dying world, left futile in their pointless "crying out," witnesses a child of the King resting completely in the loving arms of the Creator regardless of circumstances, something happens. Their heads are turned, not with a cynical smirk. They just may want to know Him. That's why Christians are here. That's why we have circumstances, both favorable and unfavorable to our human existence.

When we turn our head toward God, we turn our back on our circumstances. This is our way to show the world in whom and what we trust. BTW, isn't that on our coin? Does that seem strange at all? Has our nation turned its back on its basic claim, "In God we trust"? 

Might it be that the core assumption Christians hold dear about "the outcome of things" creates a prayer life that has heads turned toward circumstances?

Receive this blog or not, but at least ponder it .....

Read the scriptures on prayer with the assumption that it is the "source of things" that matters, not "the outcome of things." You can read more about core assumptions and how they affect everything we think, feel or do in my newest book, "b4Worldview: there are ONLY TWO" found on amazon.com