I once read a quote that said prayer doesn't change circumstances as much as it changes the man who's praying. I believe this is very true. I was reminded of it recently when doing none other then praying.
Jim and I hadn't been getting along the best that day. We were miffed at eachother and I felt as though the reasons he was miffed at me was completely unfair...hench why I was miffed back. I sat down and started to pray, "Lord please help me not to be affected by Jim attitude towards me." After the words came out they didn't settle well. "Don't let me be affected by Jim's attitude?" Then it hit me, he's my husband, whatever is going on with him is going to affect me, fair or not. We are one and every time he's peeved at me, in a bad mood, or depressed about something it's going to affect me. I quickly changed my prayer to, "Please help me not to react badly to him and how his state at the moment is affecting me."
Then I got to thinking...if his emotional or mental state affects me, then mine must affect him too. Oh boy...gulp. How many times am I in a pissy mood for stupid reasons...I woke up pissy...I lost my cup of coffee somewhere in the house for the third time today...the kids left their dirty clothes on the floor again...yadda, yadda, yadda.
If I'm in a bad mood, depressed, or on edge, it's going to affect him the same way it does me. How many times do couples get into fights because they can't extend to eachother the same grace and patience that they want.
Truth of it is that sometimes what I'm going to have to deal with concerning my husband isn't always going to be fair or deserved...visa versa, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that I do my best to not react in a stinky way to him and I try to keep in mind that I can have the same affect on him as well.
This praying thing can be quite dangerous for a selfish person like me. Go to pray about something impaticular and God shows you something about yourself. He didn't change the circumstances I was in cause Jim continued to be pissy with me the rest of the day...what changed was me.
Prayer doesn't change circumstances because there is no such things as miracles. If one did not believe that prayer caused the almighty to intercede on your behalf, what is the point? Prayer didn't change you, you changed yourself--by yourself. What you are describing is ordinary irreligious self-reflection with a useless and illusory god stapled clumsily on the top.
ReplyDeleteIf you discarded god from your story entirely, it would have started and ended with *exactly* the same results.