Your Prayers are Pointless

Recently my church had a showing of War Room. The plot of the movie revolves around a middle class African American family. The couple and their daughter are in the midst of struggles that would seem familiar to many families. They don't seem to love each other anymore and both are ignoring their daughter. The wife finds a mentor and seeks to change her family through prayer.

By the end of the movie the family is happily back together. The wife still meets with her mentor, but now seeks to find someone else to pour into. The thrust of the movie is that the prayer of the wife changed the family. Prayer works . . . at least in this movie.

If the above statements bother you, good. They should. They are supposed to. But before I get to why, I want to talk about movie critics.

I smell something rotting.

Many of you know that I love movies. Because I love movies, I have an affinity for movie reviews. One of my favorite review sites is Rotten Tomatoes. I love this site because it gives me an honest take on movies and critics. Other sites like IMDB compile all reviews of a movie into one score. But Rotten Tomatoes has a critic score and an audience score. This is important because often audiences will rate a movie based on how they felt after. Though this is important I also like to know about things in a movie like pacing, cinematography, and writing. A critic score will give me a better picture as to how that played out. 

One other thing many of you know about me is that I tend to side with critics when it comes to "Christian" movies. This is due mostly because of those last things I mentioned, specifically writing. Given this it didn't surprise me to see that War Room got a 34% by critics. (The audience review was much higher. But we'll get to that later.) Apparently this is a rotten movie. Why?

A quick look at some of the critic reviews reveal exactly why such a bad score. If you are thinking that it is simply because it is a "Christian" movie you will be surprised. Many of the reviews state that this is the least this film has the production value worthy of Hollywood. This is a plus. But the problem for most critics was the fact that prayer could work. As one critic put it

[Elizabeth] must do what Miss Clara has done, which is remove all the clothes, shoes and handbags from one of her closets and turn it exclusively into a room for prayer. . . And magically, it works!

This is the problem for the critics. The movie makes it seem like prayer is magic. Many of the critics note that there are very real issues (adultery being one) that seem to be solved by simply closing ones eyes and saying the right words. 

Before you start filling my comment section with statements about how I don't think prayer works. Or before you write into local critics and complain to them that they are persecuting Christians, I want to ask you one question. 

Do YOU believe that prayer works?

Honestly. Do you believe that God answers your prayers? Those of you who read this blog who are not Christians probably don't. But those that claim to know God. That claim to have intimacy with Jesus. What do you believe about prayer? 

I ask this question because I think that how we answer this question affects how we pray. I think it affects how long we pray. It affects what we pray for. And it affects how we look at God. Our answer to that question is an important one. And since it is an important one I want to look to scripture for my answer.

What does scripture say about prayer?

Prayer in its most basic definition is talking to God. It is at this point in the conversation that I would point to people like Abraham and Moses who petitioned God and seem to have been able to change God's mind about things. But since discussions of changing God's mind always end in discussions about sovereignty. And since that is not my focus here. I will look at Jesus.

If we look at the life of Jesus we find that he prayed all the time. We find that he prayed before major decisions like choosing the twelve. We find that he prayed when he was busy and stretched thin. Jesus prayed at turning points in his life like his baptism, transfiguration, and crucifixion. Finally we find him praying before insurmountable troubles as in Gethsemane. 

Now some might say that Jesus was simply showing us we are to submit to God and that our prayers really do not cause God to change anything. I can understand how one might come to this conclusion, but let me make a few points. 

First, at Gethsemane it would seem that Jesus was petitioning the Father in earnest. He did not want to be crucified. Second, when we look at the Lord's Prayer we find Jesus teaching us to petition God for the needs of the day (our daily bread). Finally, and perhaps most importantly Jesus flat out tells us that if we continue to petition God that He will answer our prayers. 

And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?  ~ Luke 18:7 ESV

It would seem that Jesus through his life and words is telling us that if we pray we will have an answer from God. Before you tell me that I am preaching health and wealth, remember that the parable is about getting justice. Jesus is telling us that when we pray for good. When we pray for justice in the world. When we humble ourselves and seek the well-being of the world. Then God will answer our prayer.

It's about persistence not method and language.

What the critics thought was that prayer was about saying the right words. Or maybe praying in the right place. Perhaps it's about praying on your knees. But all of this misses the point. Jesus tells us in Luke 18 that it is about persistently praying. Why does the widow continue when she knows the judge is evil? Because she firmly believes that things WILL change. 

This is the key. The world tells us that this is all we get. That our life can only be changed by our own actions. (What if our circumstances are too great for us to change them?) Worse some will tell us that there is no hope. That the life we have is what we get. If there is a God, He can't hear you. And even if He could hear you He won't do anything about it.

Prayer rejects the status quo.

Prayer rejects that the world is good as it is. It rejects the idea that we can do nothing about it. It rejects the idea that God is powerless. Prayer is standing up and declaring that our God is powerful. Our God is good. Our God cares about us. And our God will save us. This is counter to everything that we are taught about the world.

I titled this "Your Prayers are Pointless" not because I think that they should be, but because I think that for many they are. If we don't believe that God will do anything then why should we pray? And when we do pray they become pointless. Funny enough, we find that when we pray this way it is not only the things we pray for that change, but it is ourselves.

I leave you with a quote from David Wells in Christianity Today:

There is plenty of strong-willed and lively discussion—which, in part, or in whole, may be justified— about the mediocrity of the preaching, the emptiness of the worship, the superficiality of the fellowship, and the ineffectiveness of the evangelism. So, why, then, don’t we pray as persistently as we talk? The answer, quite simply, is that we don’t believe it will make any difference.

May you pray without ceasing. May you petition God for the good of your family, community, and world. May you never lose heart. And may you come to realize that our God answers prayers.

Amen!