Dear People Whom God Loves,
GOD’S INTERACTION WITH THE WORLD – XIII
What is prayer? How does it work? Prayer is mysterious, but we can get some limited understanding of it. I pray for several reasons. One is that Jesus prayed and encouraged us to pray. I know of no one wiser than Jesus in such a matter. There is also a long tradition for prayer. Finally, my experience is that when I pray, I do better.
I used to think of prayer as trying to get God to do for me or others what I wanted. When I look at that now, I see that I was trying to convince God to be good to me and others for whom I prayed. Now I see two things wrong with my approach.
One is that I was not recognizing that God was more interested than I in my good and the good of others. God loves me and others more than I love myself and them. The second is that I was assuming that I knew what was really good. I now realize that sometimes what I think is good is not really good and even though it may be a good, it is not good In the big picture of our world and the universe.
Granted all of this, I still have to look at the reality that sometimes prayer seems to work and sometimes it doesn’t. Also, it seems to work better for some people than for others.
God’s creation is an expression of his self-emptying love. Love allows freedom for whom or what it loves. Love also places boundaries so that those loved do not self-destruct. We and the rest of the universe are limited. That is why we need boundaries. The twelve-step programs recognize this by distinguishing between helping and supporting someone and enabling them.
God Is constrained by human freedom and by the free process of the universe. We and the universe cooperate in the evolution of the universe. At the same time, beside the fad that the law of nature allows this freedom, it also has stable and unchangeable aspects to it.
This means that some things are possible for God to do in the universe and some things are not. When we say that God is all powerful, it means that God is all powerful according to his nature. His nature is Love. Love allows. stability and freedom. So it is not surprising that Love (God) has chosen a universe that is both stable and free. God can act in the spaces where freedom exists and not in the stable parts.
More next time.
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay
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