Last week, I met a woman who was experiencing chronic pain and a myriad of problems. God urged me to pray for her, and she gladly accepted the offer. Tears ran down her face as I told her of the unstoppable, uncontainable, and truly unconditional love of God found in Christ Jesus. The time was saturated in grace, and I left there knowing it had been a God moment.
That night, as I said my prayers, I put her at the top of the list and said, “Help her, Papa God.” Suddenly, a truth bomb dropped inside my soul. I realized that when I pray, I do not “dispatch” God to help others, but instead, I pray for others because God dispatches me to pray for them. After all, as it says in Psalm 46:1, God is the “ever-present help in time of need,” so why would I have to ask Him to do what He is already doing? I finally understood that my desire to pray for folks was not only His idea, but by praying, I was part of the help He was already giving.
I have long been bothered by the typical idea of prayer. We tell God who needs the help (often including the last name so He won’t be confused). Then, we tell Him the exact nature of what we believe the problem to be and why they deserve to be assisted. We give advice on how and when we think this should happen and then try to talk Him into it by telling Him that the miracle would make Him look good. Then we faithlessly thank Him (because if we are trying to talk Him into moving, we have no faith that He will), and we tag on an “in Jesus name,” just to dot our I’s and cross our T’s.
This style of prayer has bothered me since I became a believer. For starters, if Papa God knows everything, why does He need all those details? And why should I ask someone who is the “ever-present” God to be with someone? We say God is omnipresent; doesn’t that mean He is always everywhere? And if He’s a loving God, why must I talk Him into helping? Are His holy hands tied until I dispatch Him to help?
Aristotle called God the “Prime Mover” and believed that the Prime Mover is the Being that caused the Universe to move. Thomas Aquinas agreed, and then defined God as the Unmoved Mover, the First Cause, the Necessary Being, the Absolute Being, and the Grand Designer. Those guys had it right; we modern-day Christians should learn from them.
We are not the Prime Mover; God is. He brings folks to our attention so we can be part of the solution He is desiring for their lives. Jesus told us to pray “on Earth as it is in Heaven” for all situations. In other words, we are to understand the Kingdom of Heaven, how full of love, peace, joy, health, and restoration it is, and pray that God’s ideas for their lives manifest here on Earth.
He is God. The Prime Mover, the Absolute Being, and He is bigger, better, holier, and way more active and loving than we ever suspected. We release the Kingdom into their lives when we encounter folks and love them where they are. Every smile, hug, whispered prayer and testimony of how much God loves them is first initiated by Papa God, the First Cause of everything good, pure, and loving.
All this reminds me of a song by Jason Gray called “With Every Act of Love,” it goes like this: “Sitting at the stoplight, He can’t be bothered by the heart cry written on the cardboard in her hands. Oh, but when she looks him in the eye, His heart is broken open wide, and he feels the hand of God reach out through him. And heaven touches Earth. We bring the Kingdom come with every act of love. Jesus, help us carry You. Alive in us, Your light shines through. With every act of love, we bring the Kingdom come.”
No responses yet