My prayer mindset

Yesterday I attended a fellowship which I was invited to. Afterwards I had a sit-down with the pastor. In the course of the conversation the pastor noticed that I didn’t put any prayer request in the newcomers form I was given to fill. I said that “I only thank God for what he’s done and what he’s planned to do for me”. He was surprised to learn that I don’t request anything from God. He wanted to know why. 

I simply told him that asking God for something doesn’t mean he will answer. And not asking him for something doesn’t mean he will not answer. So my prayer to God is just to demonstrate gratitude and not to make requests. Then the pastor wanted to preach to me how I’m missing out on the grace of God by not making any request to God. I told him not to bother because nobody really knows how God answers prayers except him. We can only claim to know based on faith. 

I told the pastor that there is a logic that a person who works hard all the time with the consciousness to be successful may not be successful, but a person who has failed many times, even more than s/he could count, is most likely to be successful. This is the idea that “backwards law” suggests. I told the pastor that this logic applies to the notion that asking God for things when we pray is necessary for God to answer our prayers. I said to the pastor that sometimes (even) continuous requests to God may be the reason prayers are not answered. 

I know that what I’m saying is contradictory to the popular way we have been constructed to think in society, especially by our religious leaders. But, the truth is that reality doesn’t respect predetermined constructs that are pivoted to propagate unwholesome narratives. The reality is that there is an element of reverse effort in our relationship with or communication to God. 

Unfortunately, our minds have been programmed to think that every conscious efforts to ask God for things through prayer will result in answered prayers. Perhaps we need a change in our mindset.