We're gonna start
I'm gonna do this. We're gonna do it, we're gonna do it
You and I, doing this thing
OK
Why should we pray?
I think that's a great question
Well thank you Father Mike
You're welcome Father Mike
You have such great questions.
OK sorry, sorry. I'm just so excited
Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents
So, um, when it comes to prayer
petitionary prayer or you know uh prayers where you're asking for something of God
whether that's for yourself
or for someone else, that's like intercessory prayer
Or for a group of people or for the world
Whenever you're asking God to act, the big question almost
always comes up, like, why would you do that?
What good does prayer do?
At first glance you say, "Well if God is good and God already wants the good to happen
then, he'll just do it, right?
So why would you need to pray for that kind of a thing?
Why doesn't God just do it?"
That's a fantastic question!
Does our prayer change God?
Answer: No.
Not really. God is good.
He's immutable. He's unchangeable.
He is goodness so he doesn't need to be convinced to be good.
um, He is uh, love. He doesn't need to be convinced to love us more.
So what good does prayer do. Does it change God? No.
What does it do though? Why do we do it?
A: we do it because he told us to.
so *heh* when Jesus tells you to do something its a REALLY good idea to just act on that
and Jesus tells us to pray always. Jesus tells us to intercede.
He tells us to go before the Father and ask and ask and ask.
He tells us to be persistent in prayer
So Jesus tells us to do it. So, good idea to do that.
Number 2: Prayer doesn't change God, but it does something.
It changes things. Prayer actually does change things.
Well, God changes things. So why does he need us to pray?
Well, here's the crazy thing. This is remarkable.
I think it was some great saint back in the day, probably his name started with an A like Augustine or Aquinas
or Pascal, it doesn't start with an A but it has two As in it,
who said, "In calling us to prayer, God extends to us the dignity of being causes"
In calling us to pray, God extends to us the dignity of being causes.
That God could do it on his own but he wants to be in cooperation
with us. He wants to be a coworker with us.
And so God invites us into this. He could just do it!
Obviously. Because he's good, he's already powerful, he's already good.
He wants the good but often times he invites us to participate in his work
and so when we cooperate with him, when we add our prayers to his goodness, that's what he's been waiting for,
that's what he's ... actually that what he's not waiting for, that's what he's CALLING us to
now someone could say, well no, if God wants this, his will is going to be done regardless of what I do
and C.S. Lewis, my old buddy Jack Lewis, he points out- he says nobody lives like that
nobody says well if God wants me to have food today, he's gonna makes sure that I have food
in the sense of I'm not gonna go to work, and I'm not gonna go to grocery shopping
and I'm not gonna wait, you know I'm not gonna go look for food. If he wants me to eat today, he's gonna bring food to me
he- C.S. Lewis goes on to say- he's like people don't go outside saying
I'm not gonna bring an umbrella because if God doesn't want me to get wet, um
he'll just make it rain around me, not on me.
No one lives like that, we all are actors like, we get to choose, we are agents,
we act on the world, we make decisions
and those decisions mean something, not only in the physical world
but also in the spiritual world, that our prayers are united to God's goodness and it makes a difference
God extends to us the dignity of being causes.
So, prayer doesn't change God, but it does change things, and another thing it does is it changes us.
Prayer does change us,
when we get into contact with God, when you and I come into contact with God
whether that's in meditative prayer, whether that's in silence and prayer,
whether that's through reading his Scripture; reading his word
or, being a coworker with him, it changes us
we become more like him when we live like him
we become more like him when we spend time in prayer with him.
It does change us.
Yes, he can do it on his own, but he wants to spend time with us, he wants us to have a relationship, and that's
kind of in so many ways, so many ways, the primary end of prayer is to have a relationship with God
example, um, when I was growing up, uh, my dad was building a shed in our backyard, I have a couple stories about sheds
this is the shed in my parent's backyard, and my dad probably could have made the shed by himself.
Basically like all of the chores that my parents had us do with them,
my parents could have gotten them done in a fraction of the time that it took for all of us to do them together
but there's this shed in the backyard, my dad wanted to build the shed with us kids
and he could've done it on his own but he wanted to work with us
and in spending that time with my dad and my siblings in building this shed,
we didn't just get the job done. That's what prayer is, right? It gets the job done.
We also spent time with my dad
and I got to see how my dad works, I got to see my dad's heart, I got to get to know him
in a different way that I wouldn't get to know him when I didn't work alongside of him.
When God calls us to prayer, to petitionary prayer, to intercessory prayer,
one of the things he's doing is he's inviting us to come alongside him, to work with him
to will the good with him and to get to know his heart, to become like him,
so yes, prayer doesn't change God, he's already good, he's already- he's goodness itself
but it does change things and it does change us
and it gives us something immeasurably greater than just an answer to prayer, it gives us a relationship with our Father.
So today, take the time,
step aside, become a coworker with the Father
and pray for someone.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name's Father Mike, God bless.