A Reminder

Last night this question kept swirling in my head...."Can (or does) prayer really change God's mind?" Is the goal, sometimes, when I pray, to change God's mind? I asked Jim what he thought. He had a firm, strong opinion....his reply was "I don't know". How about that. Classic Jim. Not to get side-tracked but Jim often likes to come up with answers for me even when he doesn't have them (I've probably conditioned him to do this because I am such a need-to-know person). So, I often tell him to please just say "I don't know" if he doesn't have the answer to something. Then, I am annoyed when he says he doesn't know the answer to my question. Classic ME. LOL Isn't marriage funny?

So, back to the topic of prayer and whether it changes God's mind. I whipped out my Bible and looked in the back under PRAYER. There was a laundry list of verses associated with and related to prayer. One stuck out to me, for several reasons. The verses I am referring to are Genesis 18:20-33. These verses show us that our prayers won't change God's mind, but they may change ours. Prayer helps us better understand the mind of God. So, if I'm going to be honest....that wasn't really the answer I was hoping for. I kept reading....and came to Genesis 19:14 "You have been so kind to me and saved my life, and you have granted me such mercy. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up to me there, and I would soon die." (these are the words of Lot as God was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah). OK just so we're clear...this is totally off the topic of Prayer. But, it was something I needed to be reminded of. Often a daily reminder is necessary. Anyhow, the gist of this verse is that Lot had lived so long and was so contented among ungodly people that he was no longer a believable witness for God. He had allowed his environment to shape him, rather than he shaping his environment. Lot had compromised to the point that he was almost useless to God. When he finally made a stand, nobody listened! So, I have to ask myself...have I, too, become useless to God because I am too much like my environment?

Payton was laying next to me in bed as I was doing my reading. So, I had to ask her the same question. She is at school more than she is with Jim and I. I asked her how she felt about those statements. I hoped she would recognize the absolute necessity of not allowing her environment to shape her. And, the necessity of not compromising to the point of becoming useless to God. Sometimes not compromising makes me feel like I am being intolerant or uptight. But, that is just not the case. That is the manipulation of this world.

So, what started out as a simple curiosity about prayer turned into a brutal, yet utterly necessary, reminder!