01.05. PRAYER AND OMNISCIENCE

5. PRAYER AND OMNISCIENCE And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8)

God has exhaustive knowledge of all things. He knows all bout our past, present, and future. He knows all of our thoughts and actions. He is omniscient. Scripture repeatedly reminds us of this attribute of God, and we must take care not to forget it, or act in a way that is inconsistent with it. That is, if God is omniscient, then we should think and act in a way that reflects our acknowledgment of this divine attribute. In our context, divine omniscience has several implications for how we should pray.

Some people think that God will hear them because their prayers are long and repetitious. In some religions, prayer often consists of monotonous chants or prescribed prayers that are recited again and again without thought. On the basis of God’s omniscience, Jesus condemns such prayers. He tells us not to be like these pagans because God already knows what we need before we ask him.

Once I was on a telephone conference call with several women who regularly called in to pray and to discuss spiritual things. After several needs were mentioned, one of them hijacked the conference and began to pray...and pray...and pray. Much of it was repetitious, unbiblical, and pious-sounding mystical nonsense. So I lost interest and put down the phone to make myself a cup of coffee. Then, I went to my desk and tidied it up a little. When I picked up the phone, she was still praying, and it sounded just the same.

I am not sure how long she prayed, but I think it must have been twenty minutes. In a setting where the primary function of the conference is discussion, the prayers should be brief, perhaps limited to one minute or so. In this case, her prayer could have been said in ten to thirty seconds. No public prayer should last twenty minutes unless there is some sort of a prior agreement, and even then I hesitate to give my approval to it, since given the way people pray nowadays, it would just be twenty minutes of wasted time. But if we are assured that the entire prayer will consist of meaningful content without needless repetition or other stupid behavior, then perhaps an even longer prayer is justified at times.

If I were to think better of the woman than what her behavior suggested, I would say that she had formed some poor prayer habits. But in this case, it was evident that she wanted to dominate the conference, and to get the attention and approval of other participants. She wanted to show the rest of us her spirituality and passion for the things of God, which her lengthy prayer in fact suggested to be false. She succeeded in annoying me and nothing more. But if she had gained the admiration of the other women that night, according to Jesus, that is all the reward she was going to get. She did not impress God at all.

I was not the leader or moderator of the conference call, but if I had been responsible for it, I would have spoken to her after the first instance of such violation and point out to her from the Bible that her behavior was wrong. If she had continued, I would have to embarrass her by addressing it on the conference call itself. If she had insisted on continuing such behavior, I would have to forbid her from participating again. This treatment follows the general pattern for church discipline outlined in the Bible.

Maybe you also pray like this woman. If so, stop it! You are not spiritual, and you do not know God. You are praying as the pagans do. You are treating God as the pagans treat their deities, who are not gods at all. All the reward you are going to get is the admiration of unknowledgeable people who would be fooled by your false piety. The more spiritual and mature believers would be disgusted by the shameful display that you call prayer. Ecclesiastes 5:2 says, "Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few." Of course, God welcomes his people, and you may pray as long as you wish if you continue to have something meaningful to say. But leave out the nonsense.48

Christians should pray "as if" God is omniscient because God is indeed omniscient. This is the principle that we must keep in mind, that we must reflect our belief in the divine attributes in all that we think and do. God already knows our thoughts, desires, and circumstances; therefore, when we pray, we do not need to repeat ourselves in chant-like fashion or make the prayer as long as possible and keep on going even if we have already finished presenting our petition. There is no need to provide a very detailed description of the circumstances surrounding the situation, or give elaborate arguments on why God should grant a particular request. He already knows the situation thoroughly.

There is a popular teaching that we should always be specific in our prayers. Instead of asking God for wisdom, we should ask him to enlighten us on the subject that we wish to understand. Instead of asking him to provide, we should ask him to give us a certain amount of money. Instead of asking for a spouse in general, we should specify the exact characteristics that we wish him or her to have.

However, this teaching appears to be unbiblical, especially when one insists that all prayers must be specific, and that the level of specificity must be very high. Some of the prayers in the Bible are specific, but many are very general, even when they are directed toward clear and specific needs. In any case, the number of highly specific prayers in the Bible does not justify the teaching that we should make most or all of our petitions highly specific. This is not to say that most or all of our prayers should be general. I merely want to point out that it is unbiblical to insist that most or all prayers should be specific, since the Bible does not provide justification for this teaching. In fact, given the omniscience of God, our starting assumption should be that most prayers do not need to be highly specific or contain many details. Although I do recommend that one be specific when confessing his sins, I can think of at least several biblical passages in which even prayers of such a nature are not very specific.

Some people argue that making our requests specific has the positive effect of focusing our minds when we pray. This may be true, but we are not praying to ourselves. In prayer, we are not trying to achieve mystical breakthroughs or reach an altered state of consciousness. Rather, we are addressing an intelligent person who simultaneously perceives our words, thoughts, and circumstances. If God is omniscient, then we should not act as if he is not omniscient.

It is also said that if we will make our petitions specific, then we will more easily recognize our answers when they come. However, this is true only if God answers our prayers in the way that we prescribe, but there is nothing in Scripture promising that God will give us what we ask in the exact manner and form that we expect. It may be that he decides to answer our prayers in ways that will further our sanctification, whereas when we prayed we were only concerned with our apparent need and not thinking about our spiritual growth at all. That said, at times, God may move a person to pray a very specific petition so that when the answer comes, the person would be more convinced that the prayer has something to do with it. But again, there is nothing in Scripture to indicate that this is the rule rather than the exception.49

There is another issue that may pressure a person to make his petitions highly specific. I am not sure how many people have thought of it, but it receives little attention from books on prayer. Moreover, since discussing it will involve a partial but instructive exposition of two relevant passages, the point is indeed worthy of mention. Here are the passages:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:7-11) So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke 11:9-13) The context of these parallel passages is prayer, and in them, Jesus gives his hearers three examples illustrating how earthly parents respond to the petitions of their children. On this basis, he makes a "from lesser to greater" argument50 to establish the superior benevolence of the heavenly Father. The three examples Jesus gives about earthly parents tell us the point that he intends to establish about the heavenly Father. We may represent these examples by the following propositions:

1. If your son asks for bread, you will not give him a stone.

2. If your son asks for a fish, you will not give him a snake.

3. If your son asks for an egg, you will not give him a scorpion. The "stone" probably refers to one of the limestone pebbles of the Palestine seashore that looked like small loaves of bread. The "snake" in the second example may be an eel, which the Jews could not eat because it was considered unclean. As for the scorpion, its claws and tail are folded in when it is at rest, and thus may resemble an egg.51 In effect Jesus is saying to his hearers, "You will not give your son something that makes it look like you have granted his request, but in fact it is the means by which you will make his situation worse." From this premise, Jesus argues that God is not like the pagan gods that we read about in mythology, who would use the request of a petitioner as an opportunity to mock and torment him. These mythological deities may make the petitioner’s situation worse in the process of granting the request, or by granting the request, they would make his situation worse through the consequences produced by the granted petition. For example, if a man were to ask for a large sum of money with the intention to cure his wife of a fatal disease, these mythological deities may kill his wife in a car accident so that the man may receive the money he wants from her life insurance. But then, the man would no longer need the money. Stanley Grenz gives the following example: The goddess of the dawn, Aurora, fell in love with a human youth, Tithonus. When offered by Zeus any gift she might choose for her lover, she requested that Tithonus live forever. Unfortunately, Aurora failed to specify that Tithonus remain forever young. Her request was granted, but in an unfortunate way. Poor Tithonus grew ever older and could never die. The gift of Zeus became a curse.52 In my example, the man would need to specify that his request must be fulfilled in a way that will not bring any harm to his wife. But then the deities may decide that the man himself or his son should die in the process of granting the petition. The man may specify that no harm should come to anyone in order for the request to be granted or as the result of the request being granted. But then he fails to specify how long it should take before the money comes, so that he may not get it in time. In Grenz’s example, Aurora could have specified that Tithonus were to remain forever young besides living forever. But then she may have failed to specify that Tithonus should also be immune to sickness, so that the result may be that he could be immortal and young, but forever ill and in torment. As one who often deals with theology and philosophy, I try to be specific and precise when communicating my views, and I try to anticipate objections or misunderstandings so that I may address them in my presentation. However, even if I were to anticipate all the ways in which my words can be distorted and misunderstood, and even if I were to anticipate all the potential objections to my views, it would be impossible to address all of them in any given presentation. But the fact is that I may indeed fail to anticipate certain objections and distortions, so that I can only address them if they were directed at me after my presentation.

However, the difficulty is nothing compared to the problems that may arise when speaking to God. If God were to behave like the pagan deities, it would be impossible to outwit him by formulating a perfect petition that cannot be distorted or answered in a way that makes things worse. But Jesus assures us that this is not something we need to worry about ­ - God is not like the pagan deities. He is not trying to trick us or mock us. Thus I need not try to cover myself from every possible angle when I bring my request before him. God already knows about my needs, and I can trust him when I speak to him. He will not use my petition as an opportunity to make my situation worse. When I ask for an egg, I do not need to specify that I want a chicken egg of a particular size, of a particular color, from a particular farm, and that I do not want a poisoned or spoiled one.

Therefore, when we pray, we may wish to include some details, and be specific enough to constitute clear communication. But we must also assume the omniscience and benevolence of God, so that we do not need to worry that a prayer that is not highly specific will be unanswered. In fact, the Bible shows that God will often do greater things than we request and expect.

Abraham asked God to spare the cities if there were only five righteous men there, and it was likely that his main concern was saving Lot from destruction. Since there were not even five righteous man in the cities, God was technically justified in destroying them, which he did, but he removed Lot from cities before he destroyed them. Assuming that Abraham’s main concern was really Lot’s safety, his prayer technically failed, but God knew Abraham’s thoughts and granted what he was really after. In the same way, although it is irreverent to be careless with our words when we pray, we do not need to be perfectly precise and extremely specific. This is not an excuse to be lazy. The biblical prayers are specific enough so that we know a prayer that simply says, "Bless me," is likely to be too general in most contexts. Nevertheless, God always knows what you are going through, so that at times even "Help me!" is sufficient. The point is that it is wrong to pray as if God knows nothing, or as if he is looking for loopholes in our petitions so that he may answer them in ways that will ultimately harm us. If God wants to harm us, he can do so without the opportunity generated by an imperfectly formulated petition.

We should pray in a way that implies our acknowledgment of the divine attributes of God, and here we are emphasizing his omniscience. That God knows everything, even our thoughts, implies that we do not even need to pray aloud, but that he can hear us even when we pray to him in our minds without speaking out our prayers. There are several examples in the Bible where prayers to God were made only in the mind, and they were answered (Genesis 24:45; 1 Samuel 1:13).

Nevertheless, there are advantages to praying aloud. Although I have argued above that our prayers do not need to be extremely specific, they should not be so general that even we have no idea what we are saying to God. Speaking out our prayers forces us to put our thoughts into words, and therefore helps to focus our minds when addressing God. For this reason, you should usually pray using clear and distinct words even when you are praying only in your mind. That is, you may "speak" those words to God in your mind without saying them aloud with your mouth, and he will hear you.

Another reason for praying aloud is so that others may be edified. We are not saying that we should pray aloud so that others may hear us in order to impress them. Jesus condemns such a motive for prayer. What I am pointing out is that our prayers, although addressed to God, may also be a source of comfort and instruction for other people (John 11:41-42). When others hear how expectant and reverent we are when we pray, it may encourage them to pray likewise. And since any prayer presupposes a theology, our prayers will have the effect of informing and encouraging others if they are rich in theological content, as with the prayers of Paul in his letters. Praying aloud is also necessary when we are in public gatherings and when we are praying in agreement with other people.

Whatever we do, the principle remains that we are to avoid being hypocritical and self- serving in our motives and in our prayers. And we are to keep in mind that God is omniscient when we pray.

You may already be wondering, if God is omniscient and already knows what we need, then why do we pray to him at all? That God knows everything does not only mean that we do not need to be highly specific in our prayers, but it seems to imply that we do not need to pray at all. If he already knows all of our thoughts, desires, and needs, and if he knows our circumstances even better than we do, then why does he not just decide whether to grant us whatever we need regardless of whether we pray or not? Thus the omniscience of God appears to destroy the relevance of prayer. The above fails to grasp the purpose of prayer. If the purpose of prayer is to inform God of our needs, desires, and circumstances, then it is indeed unnecessary and irrelevant, since God already knows all these things. But the purpose of prayer is not to give him information that he does not already have.

First, we must pray because God commands us to pray. If we do not get any additional explanation, this is sufficient reason to pray.

Second, prayer is meaningful because it is a means by which God executes his plans. W. Bingham Hunter says, "I passionately disagree with the notion that prayer is a way to get from God what we want."53 Instead, he offers the following definition: "Prayer is a means God uses to give us what he wants."54 Prayer is one step in the process by which God executes his plans for his creation, and even our prayers are sovereignly caused by him. Therefore, prayer accords with both his comprehensive sovereignty and knowledge.

Third, we should pray because prayer is not only about getting things from God, but it is a means by which we grow in our sanctification. The Bible tells us that the will of God is our sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7). The things that God commands us to do and the things that God causes to occur in our lives all contribute to the purpose of our sanctification in Christ. In prayer we struggle against temptations, distractions, lusts, and unbelief. We struggle to find words to express our needs and desires. We study diligently to refine our prayers so that they may be more pleasing to God. But if we see prayer only as the means by which we attain what we need for self-preservation or self-gratification, then we will fail to see all the activities and benefits related to prayer that contribute to our spiritual growth. When we learn to see prayer from the broader perspective, that it is a means to meet our needs as well as one that contributes to our sanctification, we will understand that although God knows and determines all things, there is no conflict between his attributes and our need to remain in the habit of prayer and worship.