My beef with Prayer

Please, do not take offense to what I say. I am simply stating why prayer is difficult for me. It is a large struggle. It is a weakness to me. It leaves me with more questions.

Why do we pray? I have always been taught that prayer is a conversation between you and God. It is not a public display or show. I understand prayer for understanding and direction. I get prayer conversing over decisions. I get why people pray for family and friends who have fallen ill. But there are a lot of requests I don't get.

Every week I read prayer requests from church, from groups in the community, from non-profits, from family, from friends and small groups; and every week, I am shocked with how many of these prayer requests are already answered. I am shocked that people have the nerve to ask God for blessings or resources to which God has already provided. I know, this is very shallow of me. This is a weakness of mine.

But, I just can't get over why a person who is wealthy would pray for the poor to have the resources they need to survive. I just can't get that.

I think of it like this. If my friend comes to me as I am eating a meal, and exclaims that they do not have the resources to eat, would my response be to pray for them? Would I pray to God about how to help them? I can only hope not.

A favorite professor was sharing a story about a time he was asked to speak at a church. While he was ending, they were taking time for prayer requests, one of the prayer requests was about the need for $3,000 for an orphanage to fix their vehicle and other mechanical problems surrounding the building. This professor stopped the person who was sharing and asked why would you pray for that which God has already provided. He then said, "Open up your wallets, take out whatever money you have and put it up here on the alter, if we don't raise the money, I will write a check for the rest." He started then pointed to everyone in the audience to come up front, drop their cash on the alter. People were pulling out crisp $100 and leaving very angry looks.

Why would I take time to pray for that which God has already provided? I don't get it.

I think of it like this as well too. Why would I waste time praying that God would end the violence in our world, and that human trafficking would become non-existent in our world when God has clearly, and I mean if you call yourself a Christian clearly, called us to end it in our world? I am not going to pray that God does Her part when we clearly don't care about doing ours.

Why would I pray that God would end poverty in our world, when God has already provided the means for us to do so?

Why would I pray that God would end world hunger, when God has already provided the means for us to do so?

Why would I pray that God would end the cycle of oppression, when God has already shown us the way?

Why would I pray that God would end the Government welfare programs, when God has been calling the CHURCH to take care of these people since the beginning?

Why would I pray that God would stop children from dying from preventable diseases, when we know full well that we can end this but just recognizing this....

I don't get it. I don't get how one who says they earnestly believe in God can genuinely pray for these things when they already have the means and path to do so.... Maybe I am just shallow and weak, which is VERY common, but I can't grasp why this is happening.

Why would I pray to God about whether or not I should do the right thing? Why? If you Love God, then you Love your neighbor. Your inactivity as you wait for what God has provided is best reflected by the infamous Irish Statesman Edmund Burke "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for Good men to do nothing."

My beef with prayer is that we turn it around to God as a wish list of things we want Him to do, when in reality, most of which we pray for has already been answered, but we are unwilling to see it because we know it will make us work harder, it will make us sacrifice, it will make us change.

This is the reflection on my sadly shallow view.