Here’s a significant problem with prayer, at least as I see it: prayer typically involves asking God for things. This will be a quite controversial thing for some people to hear because they believe it’s entirely normal, even necessary, to ask of God when praying. How should God know what our needs for help are if we don’t express them? I understand this reasoning and it makes sense from a human perspective — if we want or need something from another human we speak to them and tell them what it is. But God is not human of course. I’m not inferring that God will read our mind and give us what we need or want; I don’t believe that God is in the business of granting any desires or needs because God has already done this. In other words, God has already established for us every form of good and so there’s nothing more for God to give.
Let’s consider this in more detail…
People have been praying to God and asking for wants and needs to be granted for generations, and many times these prayers were not answered. I don’t believe it’s a controversial thing to say that request prayers to God do not have a high rate of success. Some people claim that God reliably answers their prayers but many people have experiences of asking God for something and not getting it. Why does this happen? I think it comes down to what I said earlier — God has already given us every form of good and so there’s nothing more to give. Our problem is not an actual lack of something, our problem is a false experience of lack that comes from believing we are disconnected from God.
This was an excerpt from The Life Help Journal article: Seek God only for God. This is a membership article, with excerpt preview for non members. Access the article Here.
