“Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them?” – Luke 18:7
I once heard an explanation of a false idea of prayer as an ATM machine. This analogy really stuck with me. We don’t walk up to God, go through a snappy prayer routine, and then wait for the answered prayers to magically appear, like a neat stack of $20s. There’s no formula for getting exactly what we want from God, and we should always avoid treating our relationship with Him as transactional. God is a person, and that means we should strive for an authentic relationship with Him. The only true way to have this relationship is through consistent, heartfelt prayer.
A question our readings this Sunday pose: do our prayers affect God’s will? In our first reading, Moses had to keep his hands lifted in prayer in the ultimate isometric exercise to sustain the Israelites in battle. He even needed help from Aaron and Hur to hold them up (Exodus 17:8-13)! Jesus teaches the value of persevering in prayer in the parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8). Clearly, prayer is valuable, but why pray if we can’t affect God’s choices?
St. Thomas Aquinas taught that when we take our desires to God we participate in His perfect will: “For prayer is not poured out to God that the eternal arrangement of providence may be changed, — that is impossible, — but that man may gain what he desires of God. It is fitting for God to assent to the pious desires of His rational creatures, not that our desires move the immutability of God, but it is an outcome of His goodness suitably to carry out what we desire” (Summa Contra Gentiles, III, 95).
You could think of it this way: prayer is a means by which God’s providential plans are carried out, not a force that changes it. God is omnipotent and outside of time, so He arranges some things to happen because of and in answer to our prayers. If we pray for a friend to be healed of sickness and he is healed, that is because God already had willed for the friend’s healing through our prayers. God is so gracious that he invites us to have a share in our friend’s joy of health through our prayers! God’s goodness allows us to participate in His plan of divine love and redemption.
Prayer does not change God’s mind, but it does change us: “The prayer of faith consists not only in saying “Lord, Lord,” but in disposing the heart to do the will of the Father” (CCC 2611). When we pray with perseverance and trust, God stretches us, opening our minds and hearts to be able to desire the good things God wants us to desire and follow His will: “Transformation of the praying heart is the first response to our petition” (CCC 2739).
Jesus, I am so thankful that You planned for us to intercede in prayer for ourselves, our loved ones, and the poor and those in need. Thank you for the friends in my life who encourage me to persevere in prayer.