You
ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend
it on your pleasures. (Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible, James 4:3)
You
say God give me a choice, you say Lord I say, Christ,
I don't believe in Peter Pan, Frankenstein or Superman(Queen 1978)
I don't believe in Peter Pan, Frankenstein or Superman
How has
prayer been explained to you? There is a
scene in the movie Europa Europa, in
a Soviet orphanage, the communists intend to prove to the kids that God does
not exist (Hofschneider 1990) . They tell the kids to pray to God for candy,
and no candy comes. However, they then
drop candy on the kids and tell them the candy is from Stalin. Is this a good explanation of prayer? Asking God for things you want and then He
gives you what you asked for? In an
argument form it would look like this:
p1. If God
exists, you can make requests to him.
p2. If you
make requests, he is obligated to fulfill your request.
p3. A
request unfulfilled means he does not exist.
c. Prayer
requests go unfulfilled; therefore, God does not exist.
However, as can be seen in the above passage from the book of James, within the Biblical religion, God is not obligated to fulfill certain requests. Therefore, from a Biblical perspective, p.2 is a false dilemma. Since p.2 can be falsified, unfulfilled prayer requests are insufficient in disproving the existence of God. Moreover, this explanation of prayer also displays an inadequate understanding of the subject.
Many of us
begin to learn about God at a young age, the same time we are exposed to
stories about Peter Pan, Frankenstein, and Superman. Many people think there is even a verse that
extols child like faith; however, in context, Jesus is talking about giving up
ambitions for power in Matthew 18. Paul,
on the other hand, instructs Christians to become mature in their thinking (1
Cor. 14:20). Therefore, how can we
understand unfulfilled prayers?
Again,
James gives one reason that prayers may go unfulfilled, that the request is made
with selfish motives and for only the purpose of pleasures. Are Jesus’ followers to resemble Him or
should they resemble Veruca Salt? She
was that spoiled little girl that following her own desires, fell down the
garbage shoot in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory (Cole 1971) . Selfish motives are only one Biblical
explanation for unfulfilled prayer requests, and perhaps many of us can call mind
to requests that were not selfish but were unfulfilled. What do we do with those? That gives us a topic for further exploration
next week.
Jesus's unfulfilled prayer
Jesus's unfulfilled prayer
Written by Pastor Ozzy
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1971. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Directed by Mel Stuart. Performed by Julie Dawn Cole.
1990. Europa Europa. Directed by Agnieszka
Holland. Performed by Marco Hofschneider.
1995. Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible. LaHabra:
The Lockman Foundation.
Queen. 1978. "Bicycle Race." Jazz.
Comp. Freddie Mercury.
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