What about prayer?

 What about prayer?

I was recently asked what I thought about calls for prayer, or fasting and prayer. I actually have some pretty specific feelings about this. And people who know me might be surprised. 

It's not uncommon to hear people ask for prayer, even folks who would be considered to be Pagans will ask for group prayer. I think this question stemmed form some politician making a statement for people to pray. As to the fasting part, I know that there are a lot of references to prayer and fasting in scripture. I knew a man years ago who frequently fasted and prayed. In the times that I've known of people fasting, it's typically seemed like they were going on a hunger strike. A method and attempt to move God? Just doesn't seem right to me.

The question that comes to mind, is why are they making this request?  Or what is it that they want? That's most frequently what prayers are, asking God to do something. 

Are you asking God to heal the land, while you still want to kill unborn babies? Or produce Hollywood porn?  

For the most part, our problems are a result of how we've lived. God gave us instructions, when we ignore them, then things go bad. So now it's time to ask for Him to fix it?  But we're not alone, history is replete with societies that have done the same.  I remember a Christian comedian stand up routine about eating a donut. He prayed, Lord please transform this donut into something nutritious on the way down.  

And while I frequently hear stuff like, your past does not dictate your present or future, sorry but it really does. Things that I did over 30 years ago still today have an impact. 

I know a lot of people who will profess a strong belief that prayers are always answered. The frequent religious answer is that God always answers, with either yes or no. And some people will add, wait, which is still no. Most testimonies that I've heard revolve around prayer in some way. Usually testimonies are; something bad happened, the person prayed, and then God moved and life became good. Of late I am very suspect of most testimonies.

I also think when most people ask about prayer, they are looking for some formula or method to move God. But there are no formulas. 

We can look at the section in the gospel of Luke, the disciples ask Jesus; "Lord teach us to pray". And so we get an example. I think something in this is missing here, I've often thought that the request was not for a formula at this time, but rather they wanted to have the discipline to pray daily. 

More along the lines of, teach us to have a life of prayer. We can see that Jesus certainly had that, and I know a lot of folks who do also. 

My attitude today is quite different than it was a few years ago. I used to start every day with prayer, but quite honestly, one can only knock on a door that stays closed for so long. Prayer today, even the thought of prayer, most times brings a certain level of depression. I know people who give these great testimonies of how God moved, healed or did some miracle. Maybe, maybe not. I've been involved in group prayer for no small number of people who have died.

I have few friends, at least what I would consider to be friends. Right now I have a friend who has been in the hospital for months. I know that he, his family, and church are praying. I know their church gathered at the hospital to pray, still he is there. 

I frequently hear that one must have faith for God to move. Or that God can't or won't move unless one has a certain amount of faith. If this is true, then God is not sovereign and omnipotent. Essentially you are saying my lack of faith can stop God from doing what God wants to do. 

The bottom line is that I really don't know what to think about prayer, or the efficacy of group prayers. If group prayers changed things then wars would have stopped much sooner, storms would disperse, sick would recover, and so on. 

There is the sovereignty of God. He does what He wants to do. Sometimes it lines up with what we want too.

I remember a line from the movie, War Games. They are trying to stop the computer from starting a nuclear war by playing tic-tac-toe. General Beringer says; "I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it'd do any good".  I sometimes think that's the attitude of politicians when they ask people to pray. They've done everything they can think of so now let's try prayer. Still, if you don't stop doing what caused the problem, how can God fix it?

An aspect of prayer, the life of prayer, is simply a constant acceptance that God is indeed sovereign and almighty, and that He does know what I need, and when He decides to make things change then He will. 

This I can honestly say that I have daily. I acknowledge that God is in control, that He is sovereign, that I have problems, and everything that I have comes from His hands. Most of my problems come from things I did a long time ago, some of our current problems come from something that someone else did.

I simply must accept that God does not want to fix these things.

 

It's either that or God differentiates between the saints. Why is my friend still in the hospital when others have recovered? Why has it been nearly 2 years since my wife was rear ended and still she is not whole? Yet I know others who have had similar situations and they have fully recovered. 

I don't believe that anyone has gotten the Why question answered.

Prayer is certainly a question, one to which I do not have an answer.

A world of children, afraid of shadows

 Most of the world today is being controlled by fear, it's at so many levels. This morning I went for a bike ride, on one section I was on the sidewalk, which is about 6 feet across in the area where I was riding. I came upon a man who was walking alone, wearing a mask, going in the opposite direction. As I approached him, he stepped off the sidewalk into the grass about 10 feet away. What has happened to logical and rational thinking? As I finished my ride, I started to think of ways fear is used to control people. Parents use it with small children, some parents use it even with older children but I believe that's wrong. A small child, who has not experienced things will push boundaries. A single slap on the hand or bottom can reinforce proper behavior. There is a certain fear element that the child will get a slap. In similar ways, many people obey traffic laws due to fear, they are afraid of a ticket or paying a fine. In some neighborhoods, people may be afraid to go out at night. Most people I know will lock their doors, not always from a deep fear aspect, but an element of security. when I was a locksmith in the Washington D.C. area, I installed some pretty heavy locks. Locks called "jimmy proof" or a "police lock". The latter was interesting, it was a steel bar, about 3 1/2 foot long. It had a steel plate receptacle embedded in the floor and another plate on the door. The bar was inserted in the floor plate and when the door was closed the bar was at about a 40 degree angle, and locked into the door plate. Imagine a chair pushed against a door knob. I put a lot of these type locks on when I was there, people were afraid of being robbed or assaulted. I think I'd rather move than live in a city in constant fear. Fear is an easy emotion to play on, everyone is afraid of something, and most people are afraid of the unknown. As I've grown older and I look back, I wonder about some things that people told us to be afraid of. All through the 70's and 80's we were supposed to be afraid of the Soviet Union. Then it's been the Middle East. Today we are still supposed to be afraid of Russia, although I don't believe that Russia means us any direct harm. And more than anything else, we are supposed to be afraid of something that we cannot see and that most people really don't understand. A flu virus. It's really a boogieman under the bed. And I firmly believe that's exactly what this is. Certainly there is a flu bug, we have flu bugs all the time. But through manipulation of people's fear, nearly the entire world went into a lock down. And this was all perpetuated because people trust the governments. (That's a very big mistake). We've also been conditioned to believe that people with college degrees are smart, fortunately there are a lot of folks who are realizing that a degree only means they passed some tests, and has little to do with intelligence. It is also hard to accept the possibility that those in power, government officials, would actually want to do us harm. So for a year a lot of people have given up on living their lives freely due to fear, there is a phrase of how you stopped living for fear of dyeing. I think it's accurate. I have done a lot of digging, a lot of research in a lot of areas. Some of what I find, I think is bogus but some of what I find appears to be accurate. And some is in opposition to what the news and governments push and is accurate. In other words, in many cases, we are being lied to. I keep hoping that more people will see what's happening right before their eyes, but for some reason they can't. Maybe it's too much NPR or CNN.  I actually had a person tell me they listen to NPR as it's the only unbiased news. I was polite and did not break out in hysterical laughter, (but it was hard to do). If I could just get some folks to ask themselves some simple questions, primarily ask; Why? Why did the governments want people to stay indoors to fight off a corona virus? We have corona viruses every year. The best defense a body has is a strong immune system and lots of vitamins. We also know, scientifically, that corona viruses do not live long in direct sunlight and that the best way to get vitamin D is in direct sunlight. Fresh outside air and sun are great for the body's immune system. And while you are outside, take off your shoes and put your feet in the dirt. While I can't find any science on this "grounding" I do know from personal experience that it actually feels good to walk barefoot in my grass. So knowing this, the directive was to stay out of the sun and re-breath through a piece of cloth. Both of these are contrary to helping the immune system. Why? For as long as I have been able to read, I've noticed there are always stories printed that people could call fringe or wacky. There have always been tabloid newspapers with off the wall stories. Some people believed them and others did not, but no-one really cared what was printed, it was a free press. But today there is so much censorship, and it focuses only on certain topics. November 3rd 2020, January 6, 2021, the virus, the vaccine. Speech on these topics is heavily censored, again I ask; Why? Every year we track the death rates and causes, predictions were made last year that 2 million people in the US could die from this bug. It didn't happen. In fact worldwide, the deaths reported for 2020 were not significantly different than any other year in the past decade, but still the fear is being peddled; Why? If you don't believe that there are forces of both good and evil, then I have pity on you. I am quite certain there are these forces and right now there is a huge battle. The evil forces want to manipulate the people through fear. They have concocted a boogie man to put under our beds, they gave him a name and wove a great story of how many people he's killed. And if we don't behave, he'll get us too. The current injections, which are called vaccines but are not. They are experimental gene (DNA) therapy, have had some pretty severe reactions in a lot of people. Some have actually died from the shot. What I don't understand, is that even if someone gets the shot, they can still catch the flu. And, unless you are in a high risk group, there is a 99% probability of full recovery. So why do so many people want the shot?  And why does my government want everyone to get the shot? Why are some companies paying for people to get the shot? Why are companies paying people to get the shot? There is talk of shot passports. This may or may not become reality, it's about as wrong as can be, but I know a lot of people who support it. One thing that I find ironic is that I know several liberals who support abortion, some actually profess to be Christian. Seems like a contradiction to believe in killing an innocent baby and be a Christian. In any case, the abortion argument has been, my body my choice. Why isn't it my choice on the shot? I just wish that more people would stop and ask some questions. Why is the biggest one. Everyone does things for a reason. Why don't you speed, or maybe you do, but when you don't is it from fear of a ticket? Why do you stop at a stop sign at 2am? Again is it from fear or something else? If we only do things from fear, then we are easily controlled, but when we do things simply because they are the right things to do, like obey traffic laws, no matter what time it is. We can all live our lives more fully. We have been manipulated in so many ways last year. I watched cities burn down. I have a friend who lived in Atlanta, had a business that his family worked for years to build and it was burned down. The insurance company will not cover it because cameras caught the people who set the fire, but the courts are not prosecuting. Why, or why not?  Why did the news media stand in front of riots and try to tell us they were peaceful protests? There is an underlying agenda here, all of these things actually connect together but to get an understanding, you first have to ask the question; Why? Are you willing to ask the questions?  Are you willing to entertain the thought that maybe what you believed isn't true? There is a boogieman, he's not under the bed, it's not a virus, it's an evil force, and all it wants right now is for the people to sit at home, do nothing and comply. Why?