The Danger of Answered Prayer: When Our Daily Bread Turns Into Stone
It was in a garden in Gethsemane that Jesus Christ offered one of the most desperate prayers in all of human history: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Mt. 26:39). Yet the Scriptures tell us that the cup did not pass.
For millennia believers have offered prayers to God. While some requests are granted, others are denied or, in some cases, seemingly unanswered. It is a terrible thing to pray for the deliverance of a loved one and feel as if God says, “No.” And as terrible as this is, a request that is granted is often times even more devastating. Yet prayer, and proper theology of it, is necessary. This essay shall focus upon (1) the necessity of prayer and (2) how modernity misleads our perspective on prayer.
The Necessity of Prayer: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
Jesus’ disciples came to Him one day and asked Him to teach them how to pray, for they recognized the necessity and importance of prayer (see Lk. 11:1-4). What follows in the narrative is usually referred to as “The Lord’s Prayer.” It is in this prayer that Jesus outlines for His followers how to approach the Almighty. There is a helpful insight for us within this prayer.
“Give us this day our daily bread”: Scholars debate whether or not Jesus is referring solely to spiritual nourishment, or day-to-day sustenance as well. In the physical sense, “daily bread” refers to a request for physical nourishment through food and water. In the spiritual sense, it refers to a request for God to nourish His people through the Spirit, Scripture, and prayer.
What does it mean for God to give daily bread through prayer? In one sense it means that God hears the requests of mankind. This is a supernatural feat in and of itself. Yet beyond this, it must also mean that He answers them in some way. Simply put, His hearing and answering of petitions is part man’s daily bread. Let’s imagine a couple of scenarios.
Scenario #1: Suppose someone prays for the healing of a sick child, and that healing does not come. Many would be quick to indict God for His lack of care and concern. Others might say that God did not hear the request at all. Still others might say that He answered, “No.” As one author writes, “We can bare to be refused but not ignored” [1]. When God answers, “No,” it seems as if the Father has given a stone instead of daily bread. But the fact is that He has still given bread. He has heard, and He has answered. It is infinitely important for us to know that our requests have been heard and answered, even when the answer is “no.”
Scenario #2: Suppose someone interviews for a job, and gets it. Some would say that such a petition has less significance than scenario #1. Nevertheless, it would appear that God’s answer to the request is “yes.” But what if this is not the case? Maybe God did not answer the request at all. Maybe it was mere chance, great interview skills, or experience that led to getting the job. Why must the success of a job interview be attributed to supernatural causes? Now return for a moment to the scenario #1.
What if the Almighty were to grant healing to the sick child? Would God be praised for His supernatural ability to heal, or would the child’s newfound wellness be attributed to “man-made” medicines? The point is this: If one tries hard enough, anything can be explained away through natural causes or mere chance. The prolific author C.S. Lewis speaks to this danger when he says:
But if having prayed for our heart’s desire and got it, we then became convinced that it was mere accident—that providential designs which had only some quite different end just couldn’t help throwing out this satisfaction for us as a by-product—then the apparent bread would become a stone. A pretty stone, perhaps, or even a precious stone. But not edible to the soul [2].
The Dangers of Modernity: America’s Suspicion of the Supernatural
Why is it that mere chance and man-made medicine is often our explanation to the trials of life? Why is it that we often fail to recognize the hand of God? At least some of it can be traced back to the Enlightenment. The great goal of the Enlightenment was to free humanity of any notion of the supernatural. To accomplish this goal, Enlightenment thinkers sought to explain all human experience by science and natural causes. Great advances in science during this time led many to reject the God of the Bible and the claims of Scripture. Although this ideology existed prior to the Enlightenment, its emphasis on science and natural phenomena increased such rejection significantly. As a result, the effects of the Enlightenment’s rejection of God and Scripture still dominate many cultures, including our own.
The Enlightenment’s effect on American Christians is seen in American culture. Certain presuppositions, values, and beliefs exist in every culture. They do not have to be taught to the individuals who make up the culture—they just seem to be in the air they breathe. Thus, if one were to look through the lens of Scripture and examine American culture, it is clear that Americans, including Christians, are suspicious of a sovereign, supernatural power. It is in our air; it can even be found within our hearts.
This is a real danger in our modern, scientific, technologically advanced world. When we explain our prayers away by coincidence or happenstance, instead of giving God glory for it, our bread has become like stone—to use Lewis’s image. Our good gifts have become worthless trinkets in an advanced age. Denying that God has granted a petition is not dangerous because it hurts God’s feelings. It is dangerous because it assumes that man is independent from God. This sense of independence destroys the human soul. To assume that a good gift can come from anywhere other than the hand of God is to receive the gift and reject the giver.
Mankind is desperate for the daily bread of answered prayer. The human soul is made for an intimate relationship with God (see Gn. 1:26-27). It is made for a relationship in which God can be approached—in the same manner a child seeks a good father. Unfortunately, the sons and daughters of God often rob themselves of this good gift. God is giving us our daily bread, yet we explain away His graciousness by our modern sophistication and technology.
Conclusion
The joy of this life will never be found so long as we assume that His good gifts come from elsewhere. Joy cannot be separated from God because it is simply a by-product of Him. To find satisfaction of the soul, we must always seek to feast upon the daily bread that comes from God alone. We must avoid the great danger of believing that human advances are responsible for the good gifts of this life. May God give us this day our daily bread, and may He grant us the wisdom to know that it is from Him.
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[1] C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (New York: Harcourt Inc., 2002), 53.
[2] Ibid.
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