Was that an answer to prayer?

Last Thursday Before Pentecost

Two matters before I get started. First, many thanks to Chris, Joe, Stuart, and Glenn for their comments this week. I will address them all tomorrow. It could be a long blog tomorrow. Second,

it appears that copies of Jesus and the Pleasures are getting harder to come by. I did check Amazon last night and there were copies, though not many, most of them used. Biblio.com had several copies, mostly used. Barnes & Noble had only electronic copies (which also Amazon had). I think the first printing in 2003 was 5,000 copies. The book sold 1,600 copies in the first month after publication. It was featured in the Cokesbury catalogue, even though it was not published by Abingdon or Cokesbury. It was on the "New Books in Religion" tables in Barnes & Noble stores around the country. I thought I had a big hit on my hands. One quickly learns that it doesn't quite work that way. It sold about 500 copies the next month. By six months sales were down to just a few. Fortunately with Amazon books are still available many years after their last printing and electronic books are available forever. So, if you do have difficulty getting the book, let me know.

Thursday is prayer and spirituality day. Today I want to talk about petitionary prayer and its answers. This is the kind of prayer most people know. This is the kind of prayer people who never prayed before pray when their in deep trouble. This is prayer that is asking God for something.

So our first question is, "Does God answer prayers?" Or I could put it this way, "Does God intervene in nature or in the course of human events on the basis of specific human requests?" Most Christians do believe this. God answers prayers. I go with that viewpoint.

That raises a lot of questions. What about prayers that don't appear to be answered? We pray for a sick child, but the child dies anyway. We pray for Coronavirus to go away, but it's still here. We pray for God to take away our pain, physical or emotional, but the pain is still there. I don't have a clear answer to that question (and I distrust anyone who thinks they do have a clear answer). 

Are there things so insignificant that we should not pray for them. Should you pray that a parking space will open up, so that you won't be late for your appointment, even though you know should should have left home earlier? Should you pray for your dinner recipe to work out even though you found out too late that you were missing a key ingredient? Should you pray for your team to beat the other team? In my thinking it's ok to prayer for the first two, but not for the last. It's ok to pray for small things but not for unfair things.

What if things turn out the way we prayed for them? Was that God answering our prayer, or was it simply coincidence? Our daughter was flying home from Philadelphia for Christmas dinner with our family that same evening. She called and said her flight was delayed and might be canceled. This had happened once before and she missed the dinner. Christmas dinner is a big deal for our family. I prayed for her flight to go. It went and and made it on time. Was that God's answer to my prayers, or just coincidence. In every case like this I go with the first option. I go with the God option. I think in terms of--If you pray for it and it happens, God did it. Others of you may think differently. I would be glad to hear from you.

Thursday's blogs end with a prayer, not of my own composition.

Dear Father God,

I feel like I ask for so many things. But you bid me ask. And behind all my asking is the deeper longing for you. Lord I do want you above all things. I can survive if you say No to the things, but please, Father, I must have you or I die.  Amen.

                                                                        --Richard Foster, Prayers from the Heart