Not too long ago, a friend posted an urgent prayer request involving a young boy who was being rushed to the hospital after being shot by a nail gun. When I read this shocking request online, I paused and offered up a sincere, heartfelt prayer, asking — no, begging — God to spare this young boy’s life and heal him.
About 20 minutes after my prayer, another friend pointed out that this same prayer request had floated around the internet a couple of years prior (same names and everything). In other words, someone reposted a multiple-year-old prayer request. There wasn’t an emergency, a young boy’s life wasn’t in trouble, and there wasn’t a need for prayer since the situation was long over.
That got me thinking: What did God do with my prayer? Was my prayer wasted (since the situation wasn’t real and had been resolved years ago)? Did God just ignore it and move on to another prayer request? Was my prayer wasted?
I don’t think my prayer was wasted, and here’s why: The point of prayer isn’t to get stuff from God; it’s to get to know God himself. Every moment I spend before and with God are moments that I’m getting to know God. Does God invite us to bring our requests before him? YES! If God doesn’t grant us our requests, does that mean that our prayers didn’t work? NO! Because in Christ, when we pray, we are moving closer to the Father; the relationship deepens, and intimacy grows. Oswald Chambers wrote, “We look upon prayer as a means of getting things
for ourselves
; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may
get to know God Himself.
”
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” -
Philippians 3:10-11
Getting to know God,
Pastor Kenneth
