These are extraordinary days. We have seen films on the Internet of Italians prostrating themselves in prayer before God in city squares beseeching God to have mercy on them. The big question, of course, is whether prayer changes anything. What do you think?
According to research done by associate professor Jeanet Bentzen at the University of Copenhagen, the number of Google searches for “prayer” has increased by 40 percent during the Covid pandemic. This has been the case for almost all nations, with requests peaking typically forty days after the first case is reported in a nation. This phenomenon was not seen in the global financial crisis of 2007 – 2009… and that is probably understandable. The GFC might make you broke, but it didn’t kill you.
Covid 19 is a pandemic, a plague of truly biblical proportions.
Biblical… hmm… there’s a thought.
People have responded differently to Covid 19 depending on their character and what their world-view is, i.e. what they believe about their origin, meaning and destiny. It appears, however, that this pandemic has pricked the atheistic/hedonistic hubris of many in the West. Perhaps we have been reminded that we are not gods; we can’t do everything “my way,” and centre everything on “my” pleasures. This plague has brought us all face to face with our mortality. It has forced us to think about what it is that truly is good, worthwhile, and what it is that gives meaning. Faced with the reality of a plague, the banal antics of “Married at First Sight” leave a bad taste in more people’s mouths. They are seeing it for what it is: salacious immorality with pretentions of social virtue.
Even the media seems to have become kinder. They are no longer savaging politicians or fuelling stories of crisis in quite the same way. They now have a real crisis on their hands. Stories of kindness and humour have become part of the daily news report.
There is a real danger that our society may become better as a result of this dreadful pandemic. It would be a lovely outcome, wouldn’t it? My only hope is that it is true… and that it lasts.
But this is avoiding the issue we began with: Does prayer change anything?
The answer depends, in part, on the type of prayer. I suspect that some of the increased interest in prayer is a reflection of people’s desperate search for comfort and relief in the face of crisis. For some, it will be little more than superstition—loading “the odds” in your favour. This sort of prayer is a bit like “not walking on the cracks of a pavement,” or “walking under a ladder.” Whilst God, in his grace, may hear such prayer, I’m not convinced of its efficacy.
But what about prayer that is truly relational? What about prayer that seeks the reality of God—prayer in which the petitioner sees the holiness of God, and in that light, sees the state of their own sinfulness and the sinfulness of their nation? What about prayer in which there is true humility and repentance? Wow! If the testimony of biblical history is true, that type of prayer is powerful.
The Bible makes it clear that God created so that he could have a loving relationship with us. Love was his motive. But whilst love was his motive, holiness is his character. And that means that he has a zero tolerance for selfishness, cruelty and arrogance. That’s why he has promised to kill it off and make all things “new”—eventually.
Meanwhile, God holds his hands out to us, and invites us to pray, i.e. to talk with him honestly. Why?… because he is relational. The relevance of this is fairly obvious. If prayer didn’t change anything, God wouldn’t ask us to pray. It would be a futile exercise. But God loves doing life with us… and prayer is the language of communication.
The consistent theme of the prophets in the Old Testament is God pleading with his people to stop being evil, selfish and unfaithful because such behaviour will earn his judgment. God is not indifferent to evil. However, this message is always paired with another — a message of encouragement in which God beseeches his people to repent and embrace what is holy and true. God promises that if they do, God will “heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). God’s agenda, you see, is not one of punishment but one of healing. God wants us to have a restored relationship with him.
And that is why people of humility and conviction pray.
It has been the testimony of history that prayer changes things. That doesn’t mean that bad things never happen to Christians. They do. The Bible says that the “rain falls on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). It also says that God has chosen never to be so obvious as to compel faith. He always leaves room for the need for us to have the faith of a trusting child if we are to know him. Christians know full well that the best is yet to come, (when God will bring his kingdom). But in the meantime, they pray, for they know that prayer changes things.
I invite you to be one of those who bring about that change.
