That made me think of a conversation I was having with the pastor of a new, small church when I was a missionary in Ukraine a few years ago. Back then, I was still thinking along the lines of the more “traditional” ways of doing church, and he was trying to figure out what to do with this church that had started almost by accident (but that’s a whole other story).

Anyway, as we were talking, I asked him what his vision was for the church. He replied that he didn’t have one – and that if anything, his only vision was to provide a place that was open and safe for others to pursue their own vision for following Jesus. Whatever that might be.

As I think back now, I think he had a better idea of what church should be than most of what I have heard since then!

Why?

Because I went to church today, running the sound system to help out a friend who had to work instead. I had the opportunity had to endure the same message twice (as they have two identical services), on the “Power of Prayer”.

It wasn’t any better the second time than the first time.

To be fair, he spoke rather well, and used all the appropriate scripture verses to back up what he said.

The general idea of the message was centred around the usual scriptures of “whatever we ask for in His name, we will receive”, of course with the condition that we are “within His will”.

The usual arguments of having enough faith, and belief, and all of the other usual things were brought up as well – and we were exhorted to spend more time in prayer. After all, prayer has power, so why don’t we spend more time tapping into that power?

Ok, fine, sounds good – and if you believe the usual interpretation of the scripture verses used to back this up, who could argue with it?

Except for one little problem…

I have a degree in Science. In any scientific field, you come up with a theory – which you might assume to possibly be true – but no matter who came up with the theory, or how good it sounds, it is simply a theory until it is proven (or disproven).

How do you prove it?

You test it (if necessary, you test it many times). Sometimes, tests (or experiments) prove the theory to be invalid. This is still useful, as now you know that you need to work on a new theory.

I believe the same approach can be used in our interpretation of some parts of the Bible. This attitude toward prayer is a good example… It is a very attractive theory.

In reality, however, it is quite apparent to me, and to any person who is honest with themselves, that many times our prayers are NOT answered. Nor are those of many others. There are more than a few people in the world who have spent countless hours in prayer, who have done everything they could to be “close to God”, who have had countless other people joining them in their prayers – and in the end, the result was the complete opposite of what they asked for.

Yes, sometimes miracles do seem to happen, but it seems that much of the time they do not happen.

What does this tell me? It tells me that our understanding of prayer, the interpretation I heard this morning at church, is a faulty theory.

Why then do we keep preaching the same thing?

Maybe it’s time to admit that “we don’t get it”.

It would certainly be a lot more honest than saying that as long as you stay close to God, do/say all of the right things, then God will give you what you want, heal every ailment you ever have, etc…

I am not saying that what Jesus originally said isn’t true. What I am saying is that our current/common interpretation of it is obviously not correct.