The other day, week, time... (so that no one can guess what event I'm talking about... yeah that will work) I was with a group of people praying and I kept being really amazed by what I heard.Not amazed in a good way like, "Meagan, congratulations you won a trip to the Grammys!", but amazed in a bad way like, "Did you know that there are over 360 calories in one Starbucks muffin?"
I kept thinking, what are these people doing? Why would they pray that?! In fact, in my head, I kept saying, "No God, no. Don't do that." or "Disregard that one too!" This brought on a full-fledged prayer crisis moment. My thoughts went something like this:
If one person prays one thing, and then someone else prays against it (someone being me!) do the two prayers cancel each other out?
Does the prayer of the stronger Christian trump that of the weaker?
Who decides who is the weaker Christian?
I'm I comparing my faith to others' now?
Yes, I am. That's a real bad idea, I should stop that.
Okay, but if someone prays something so obviously wrong, God must ignore it anyway, right?
Do I ever pray things that are so obviously wrong?
Should I do the opposite of a prayer recognizer and instead of saying, "yes, Lord" out loud to this prayer should I say, "I rebuke that!"
If I did say, "I rebuke that!" would the older people in this group think I'm a disrespectful young person?
Am I going to have to whip out some 1 Timothy 4:12?
If I'm almost 30 am I even counted as a "young person" anymore?
Who really says, "I rebuke that!"
When it is my turn to pray I better make it good to make up for these other prayers.
Wait... is it my turn to pray?
In the end I didn't say anything about it. During the prayer time or after. But it did make me think about the things that we pray and how glad I am that God is far, far wiser then I am.
All of us probably have had times when we pray out of misguided beliefs, out of fear of man or out of doubt. Do these prayers just go unheard? Do they just drift through space without God paying them any heed because we aren't praying according to God's will? Absolutely not.
Even in those times when we pray things that maybe we shouldn't pray, God hears us. And guess what? It is even better than that. It isn't that God just hears these misguided prayers shakes His head and thinks, "Oh, there they go again" and does nothing. He knows what we should be praying and answers us accordingly!
"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:26-28
There is no reason for me to tell God to disregard what someone else said. No reason for someone to fear the words that are spoken over them. No reason for me to think my prayer got trumped or that if we pray wrong God doesn't hear us.
The Holy Spirit who lives inside His people intercedes for us according to the will of God! This also gives me hope for those times when I have no words to pray at all. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groaning that are too deep for words!
I love God. He has thought of everything. He has covered all the bases, so even when we mess up, in Him, we still win.
