Pestering God
In our devotional this week Eileen Clare Grant encourages us to pester God.
“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleading” (Ps 129).
“The Lord is close to all who call him” (Ps 144). Scripture is full of testimonies about the power of persistent prayer, of the benefits of actually pestering God. So often we can be discouraged when it seems as if God is not even hearing our prayers, far less answering them; and so we may be tempted to give up. Some people may even become angry with God, turn away from practising their faith, or, worst of all, lose their faith altogether. We tend not to be patient creatures, unlike God himself who has waited for millennia for his people to come back to him with all their hearts. As Scripture testifies, over and over, the Lord always hears our prayers and he always answers them – only not perhaps when we want him to or in the way we desire. This is the hardest lesson to learn about prayer; even Jesus the man had to realise it – Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done.
“Abraham answered, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?’ And he said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there…’” (Gen. 18: 20 ff)
Abraham’s trust in God and his persistence in pleading for the citizens of Sodom won a promise from God that he would not destroy the city if only ten righteous people could be found. Later, Moses in his turn pleaded with God to spare the people for their idolatry of the golden calf. “I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, do not destroy the people who are your very own possession, whom you redeemed in your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.’” (Deut. 9: 26ff). Elsewhere in the Old Testament, we find those who felt close to God, petitioning for favours for themselves or for their people: Elijah for the glory of God and on behalf of God’s people who had gone astray and suffered as a result; Hannah pleading for the gift of a child whom she promises to dedicate to God’s service; and again and again in the Psalms. In these stories we discover that God does not spurn boldness and persistence but welcomes the trust displayed by his children.
“Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”
When the only Son of God became flesh and dwelt amongst humankind as one of them, he taught his followers the value of prayer, even of persistent prayer, of the need “to pray always and not to lose heart” (Lk 18). His teachings often contained examples of this: the persistent friend knocking on the door in the night; the persistent widow seeking justice from an unjust judge. Her persistence eventually bears fruit as the judge concedes – anything for peace! – “And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” It is so easy to lose heart and we need, like the father of the sick child, like the centurion, like the disciples themselves, to pray also for the gift of faith: “I believe; help my unbelief!”; “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed”; “Increase our faith!”
“Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven” (Mt 18:19).
Sometimes we cannot know how our faith in God will stand up until we are really tested, often to the limits of our endurance. It is then, however, that we may become aware of the power of prayer, of the truly amazing strength when “two or more” of us set out to bombard heaven with our plea. Recently, our adult son was infected with the deadly necrotising fasciitis bacteria and very narrowly escaped death, and still has a long struggle ahead of him to regain fitness and compensate for the damage done to him. His story is something of a medical record – or a miracle – depending on your viewpoint, as he survived this attack for longer than most before being properly diagnosed. He had been misdiagnosed, and, for more than a week, I prayed for his recovery from whatever was causing him immense pain and discomforting symptoms. By the time we discovered what was really wrong it was almost too late and at that point I enlisted the prayer battalions!
I emailed everyone I reckoned would pray or have “positive thoughts” for our son. This rapidly snowballed, as individuals contacted their contacts, in some cases prayer groups, until the bombardment of heaven included bishops, priests, monks, nuns and hundreds of individual Christians (plus some agnostics!). The campaign became ecumenical (my husband is an elder in the Church of Scotland and I also have Anglican contacts), multi-faith (Jewish and Moslem friends of friends) and global, with prayers and Masses being offered in several European countries, in the USA, in Australia and Africa. I have had messages from people I do not know, or have never actually met, except via email. And I firmly believe that that cry from the depths saved our son.
We have been overwhelmed by the ever-expanding safety-net of love and support that has upheld us during these difficult weeks. We hear so much about the evil going on in the world, of the wickedness of fallen human beings; but God truly can and does bring good out of evil. In this huge cry that has gone up to heaven on behalf of our son, is reflected the agapé, caritas, truly divine love that seeks the good of another, of the stranger who is neighbour. And God listened to that cry and answered. Even in the darkest moments, before we knew our son would live, I knew that he was in safe hands – no matter what happened. We are, however, profoundly grateful to God that he has left us our son for a while longer. And we give thanks for all those who have shared our vigil at the foot of his cross. God is good; people are good. Thanks be to God.
“O Lord, I cried to you for help
and you, my God, have healed me.
O Lord, you have saved my soul from the dead,
Restored me to life from those who sink into the grave” (Ps 29).
By Eileen Clare Grant
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