Changing Through Prayer – We’re Not Alone

By Timmy Horng

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” – Mark 11:24 (NIV)

Well, Jesus. I’ve prayed for things—good, just things—and believed with all of my heart, and they did not become mine.

“God answers every prayer, though not always with the answer we want,” they say. The numerous platitudes designed to assuage Christians’ doubts about prayer have not worked on me. The analogies describing God’s perfect knowledge and plans, far surpassing my own, have done little to placate my suspicions that our prayers are often nothing more than wishful thinking. If God is going to “answer” in his way, I’m inclined to say we might as well roll dice.

So, are prayers Sisyphean tasks? If we treat them as barely more than appeals to influence God’s actions, they can certainly seem so. Because of this, I rarely pray anymore. At least not with my eyes closed.

Over time, as I became more and more disillusioned with the prayers that came from “my heart,” I came to deeply appreciate the prayers composed by the corporate Church over the centuries. Now, whenever I “pray,” my eyes are literally open—I’m reading my prayers, written by other people. Once, when I was going through a tough time, Ken gifted me the Paraclete Psalter, a collection of all 150 Psalms, arranged by a monastic community for their daily fixed-hour prayers. The introduction quotes Athanasius: “For I believe that the whole of human existence, both the dispositions of the soul and the movements of the thoughts, has been measured out and encompassed in those very words of the Psalter.” The Psalms may be old, but they certainly are not outdated.

The prayers I often use for opening our Sunday services are collects that come from the Book of Common Prayer (bcponline.org). These tried-and-true prayers, like the Psalter, often reflect the very things I personally wish for our church community. Whenever we read and hear the written prayers in our Sunday services—the psalms, the common prayers, the confessions, the benedictions—are we not surprised at how personally relevant they often are? How much they remind us of things that have happened to us, give voice to our emotions and desires, and shape us to participate in the divine work of this world?

Reading prayers slowly and out loud helps me see and hear the words I am saying. It engages me in a heartfelt prayer that was written by someone else, whose words connect the highs and lows of my own life to those of his or hers and countless others. It reminds me that even when God’s ears seem deaf to my requests, he has given me the gift of his people. When I read these prayers with the Church, I am not alone, even if I am the only person in the room. 

I have come to understand prayer not so much as something we use to change God, but more as something he uses to change us. I am sure many of us still make requests of God, praying from “the heart,” and find that the very act of prayer encourages us to move in ways that respond to our needs and the needs of the world. By no means do I aim to discourage those of you who choose to pray spontaneously. And those of us who take time to compose prayers for others to hear are a great blessing to the community. But whether we pray words of our own or those written by others, we join a chorus of people that shares in the joys, sorrows, thanksgivings, and disappointments of prayers that have echoed throughout creation. And with them, we find ourselves changing for the better.

A prayer from Scot McKnight’s blog:

God of All Patience,

You created and permitted creation to form into humans,
You watched Adam and Eve sin and you waited,
You made covenant with Abraham and you waited,
You liberated the children of Israel from Egypt and you waited,
You gave your people the Law and you waited,
You opened the waters to the Land and then waited,
You made kings and prophets and waited,
You waited more,

And only then did you send your Son and your Spirit – after all that waiting,

Grant to us divine patience in our homes and with our families,
Patience waiting for our country’s healing from this virus,
Patience in waiting for so many intrusions to sort themselves out,
Patience in waiting for one another in our communities.

That we might display to others divine patience,
The kind of patience that evokes your goodness and grace and understanding,

Through Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
Now and forever.

Amen