Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.

• 1 Kings 18:42

The Lord is near to all who call on him,
    to all who call on him in truth.

• Psalm 145:18

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
    and his ears are attentive to their cry;

• Psalm 34:15

indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

• Psalm 121:4

“But someone will say, Does he not know without a monitor both what our difficulties are, and what is meet for our interest, so that it seems in some measure superfluous to solicit him by our prayers, as if he were winking, or even sleeping, until aroused by the sound of our voice? 1  Those who argue thus attend not to the encl for which the Lord taught us to pray. It was not so much for his sake as for ours. He wills indeed, as is just, that due honour be paid him by acknowledging that all which men desire or feel to be useful, and pray to obtain, is derived from him. But even the benefit of the homage which we thus pay him redounds to ourselves. Hence the holy patriarchs, the more confidently they proclaimed the mercies of God to themselves and others, felt the stronger incitement to prayer.”

• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Volume 2

John Calvin (1509-1564) wrote a great deal about salvation not by works.  Rather than beat the subject into the ground, I decided to move to his next topic, prayer.

He makes the argument that I have read online and heard in church.  If God knows everything, why pray?

But if you have a best friend, you will call them every now and then.  Hopefully they reciprocate.  As I am learning (slow on the uptake), family will wait a long time.  If you fell and could not get up, I hope you have one of those alarm things or nosy neighbors.  If you count on family, especially kids, it will be too late by the time they call.  But friends?  True friends are better than that.

So, if we have a saving relationship with Jesus, we should be calling Him often.

But the argument that these naysayers use is in the realm of our needs, wants, or health issues.  It dawned on me as I read the entire paragraph from John Calvin (only a little bit copied).

If God really knows what we need, what we want, and what health issues that we do not know enough to pray about them, then why are our prayers cluttered with our aches and pains, needs (or what we think are needs), and our wants.  If a lot of people do not pray due to God already knowing that stuff, why do people that pray waste “air time?”

The answer may be that we have some faith or we would not go to God, but we do not have enough faith to trust that He already has those requests dealt with, on His schedule.

I quoted one verse from 1 Kings 18.  Elijah prays seven times.  He sends his assistant to the crest of Mount Carmel.  Only after the seventh time of praying for rain does the assistant say that there is a wisp of a cloud in the distance.  Then Elijah runs so fast that he passes King Ahab.  No one wants muddy sandals.

This teaches us a lot.  Some prayers for something are important even when God already knows.  And sometimes, you need to be persistent.  But once you have a hint that the prayer is answered in the positive, you need to act in faith.  All the assistant saw was enough moisture to hint a cloud was approaching, but Elijah had faith that a gully washer was on the way.  Sorry for the old Southern saying, but a gully washer cleans out the ditches on the side of the road, the culvert underneath the road, and the gullies in the hills.  In other words, a whole lot of rain.

But with that in mind, we need to pray to glorify and honor God.  We need to pray to confess.  And do not forget to say thank you.  Those are great ways to use that time in prayer.

And do not forget to keep praying after you run out of things to say.  Sit there and listen.  It may take patience.  It may take practice, but God will answer.  If the answer is against God’s Word – you are listening to the wrong voice.  Same goes if the voice says that the End of the World is next week on a Tuesday.  Remember that Jesus admitted to not knowing the time.  Why would you be that privileged?

But what is a relationship without two-way communication.  God speaks to us through His Word, but the little whispers can lead us to the right thing in the Bible to be reading at the moment or simply words of encouragement.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.