{"id":617,"date":"2022-03-15T14:40:43","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T14:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/?p=617"},"modified":"2022-03-15T14:41:08","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T14:41:08","slug":"my-friend-gave-up-praying-when-my-goldfish-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/?p=617","title":{"rendered":"My friend gave up praying when her goldfish died"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cI gave up\npraying when my goldfish died\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those words of a girl in our youth\ngroup are probably the most honest thing I have ever heard anybody say about\nprayer. My friend\u2019s pet fish was ailing and she prayed that it would recover.\nThe goldfish died so she lost her confidence in prayer and abandoned her faith\nin God for a time. What I am pleading for is reality and honesty in our\npraying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a\nworld of difference between \u201csaying our prayers\u201d and true Christian prayer. Our\n\u201cpraying\u201d is meaningless if we only say to God the kinds of things we think He\nwants to hear: good religious requests for suitably worthy causes. Sometimes we\ncan find ourselves asking God for all kinds of things we don\u2019t actually care\nabout at all. We can pray for blessings for people we don\u2019t know, just because these\nseem like good pious topics for prayer. There are no examples of that kind of\nprayer in the Bible at all. Prayers in the Bible, not least the Prayers of\nLament we find in the Psalms, are completely honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus makes this\namazing promise. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever\nyou wish, and it will be given you. <\/em>(John 15:7) God will give to disciples\nof Jesus, \u201cwhatever you wish for\u201d: whatever you really want. But these have to\nbe things we actually care about. Not just passing whims but things we long for\nwith a passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suppose one\nof my children came to me one day saying, \u201cWe saw a programme about children in\nAfrica, there was this little girl who looked so hungry \u2013 I don\u2019t know what her\nname was \u2013 she was only on for 10 seconds \u2013 but can we make sure she gets enough\nto eat and is never hungry again?\u201d On the other hand, suppose instead she came\nday after day saying, \u201cThere’s this little girl in my class and I\u2019m so sad\nbecause she always seems hungry and never has new clothes and says she doesn\u2019t\nhave any toys – can we help her please Daddy, please?\u201d You know very well which\nrequest I would answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can make\nthe mistake of believing that it would be selfish to ask for things for\nourselves, or for our family, or for our friends, or for our neighbours, or for\nour church. Some Christians seem to think that it is more spiritual to ask God\nfor things on behalf of people who are half a world away, than it is to pray\nfor ourselves and our nearest and dearest. That misunderstands prayer. Unless\nwe really care about helping strangers in remote lands, unless we are passionate\nenough to send off a cheque, or unless we have friends working in those\ntroubled areas, it is not deeply spiritual to say prayers about such people and\nplaces. Unless we really care about the requests we make, we aren\u2019t really praying\nat all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you are\nasking God for something, try this test. You could even call it \u2018the Goldfish\nTest\u2019. Suppose God does not grant your request. Would you feel really sad,\nreally disappointed, maybe a bit angry? Would you feel let down if God did not answer\nyour prayers? If you would not, if life would go on just as before, if your\nrelationship with God wasn\u2019t affected in the slightest if God didn\u2019t answer\nthis particular prayer, then you aren\u2019t really praying at all \u2013 you’re just\nsaying prayers. As Thomas Brooks once said, \u201cCold prayers always freeze before\nthey reach heaven\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These lines from a hymn by S.S.Wesley make the point. \u201cLet prayer be prayer, and praise be\nheartfelt praise; From unreality, O set us free\u201d. We need to be completely honest with God about\nwhat we really want. True prayer is making requests where it will be very clear\nto everybody what answers God has given. Not beating about the bush. Not\ncovering our bets. But specific requests for things we care about. We need to\nget real with God!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI gave up praying when my goldfish died\u201d Those words of a girl in our youth group are probably the most honest thing I have…<\/span><\/p>\n

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