This morning I was deep in prayer, as I often am, for our grandchildren. (Read the rest of this post before you think that sounds oh-so-spiritual.) Because our side of the family has contributed a tendency for nearsightedness to their gene pool, one of my requests was that their eyes continue to be clear and sharp and healthy.
So far, so good.
“But what about their ears?” I suddenly thought, remembering our nephew who has a hearing loss.* So I prayed for their ears.
“But what about their sense of smell?” I once worked with a guy who had lost his as an infant. So I prayed for all of their senses.
It’s never bad to pray, but can you see the death spiral I was falling into? What pitiful faith, and what a horrible view of God, as if he were just waiting to pounce on my mistakes and omissions, like the triumphant victor in a chess match:
“Checkmate! You prayed for his eyes, but neglected his ears, so I think I’ll make him deaf. And while I’m at it, maybe lame as well. And it’s all your fault! When you see him struggling with his little crutch, like Tiny Tim, remember that if you‘d only prayed properly, he would be running joyfully over the hill!”
Pitiful. Blasphemous, really.
That God wants us to pray—with specific requests, for occasions of enormous important and for the most trivial desires of our hearts—is undoubtedly true. That our prayers really matter in the working out of the details of the universe is also true, if somewhat incomprehensible.
Our prayers really matter, but they don’t limit God, nor are they necessary for his work. If we neglect a detail, he is not going to ignore what we meant in favor of what we actually said, or didn’t say. We do not need to micromanage God.
You must not imagine that the result depends on you. The question, as far as you are concerned, is whether you are to be honoured in having a hand in the work that God is doing, and will do, whether you help him or not. It shows no faith in God to make frantic efforts or frantic lamentations. — George MacDonald, Robert Falconer
*I suppose this is not the place for a joke about how this affliction especially qualifies him for his successful avocation of rock star.
