Prayer Is Not A Gimmick

"Going a little further he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me..."(Matthew 26:39a)

When I read this passage certain words jump out at me and give meaning to this verse that might be easily passed over. Picture with me this night, His last night, His arrest imminent, His death within hours, torture, pain, and being nailed to a stake like drying meat in the sun.  He knew this was coming, He knew before He came to earth that this was His portion, but now, in the natural for He was truly man not just God, He cried out for help, none came, He went through the torture, and death nailed to a cross.  We sometimes forget the horror He was to face.  We sing the hymn, "The Old Rugged Cross," so often it can lose its meaning and become just another hymn. Listen to the words, picture, Jesus just left His disciples asking that they too pray.  Walking away from His disciples the enormity of the moment struck Him and He fell on His face crying out to His Father not once but three times.  His request was not granted.

C.S. Lewis in his "Efficacy of Prayer" wrote these words:  There are, no doubt, passages in the New Testament which may seem at first sight to promise an invariable granting or our prayers. But that cannot be what they really mean.  For in the very heart of the story we meet a glaring instance to the contrary.  In Gethsemane the holiest of all petitioners prayed three times that a certain cup might pass from Him.  It did not.  After that the idea that prayer is recommended to us as a sort of infallible gimmick may be dismissed. 

Other things are proved not simply by experience but by those artificially contrived experiences which we call experiments.  Could this be done about prayer?  I will pass over the objection that no Christian could take part in such a project, because he has been forbidden it: 'You must not try experiments on God, your Master.' Forbidden or not, is the thing even possible?

I have seen it suggested that a team of people - the more the better - should agree to pray as hard as they knew how, over a period of six weeks, for all the patients in Hospital A and none of those in Hospital B.  then you would tot up the results and see if A had more cures and fewer deaths....

The trouble is that I do not see how any real prayer could go on under such conditions.  'Words without thoughts never to heaven go', say the King in Hamlet. Simply to say prayers is not to pray; otherwise a team of properly trained parrots would serve as well as men for our experiment.  You cannot pray for the recovery of the sick unless the end you have in view is their recovery.  But you can have no motive for desiring the recovery of all the patients in one hospital and none of those in another.  You are not doing it in order that suffering should be relieved; you are doing it to find out what happens.  The real purpose and nominal purpose of your prayers are at variance.

That hospital study was actually done and Richard Dawkins, the supposed guru for atheism and evolution use it in his book, "The God Delusion" as one of his proofs against Christianity.  I know for me that my prayers have changed, they have become requests and requests only, as Jesus said at the end of His prayer to the Father, "Yet not as I will but as you will." (Matthew 26:39b). 

Daily Prayer:

Father thank you that I can bring my requests, my petitions, and my praise to You who hears and answers prayers.  May I always yield to You the answer, no demands from me, simply faith that You the Omniscient God will always do what is best for all concerned.  Forgive me where I have lacked faith in You and have demanded answers.  I yield to You Almighty God.                                            Amen