Back in November, Stevie Johnson, a wide receiver for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, took to Twitter and vented his disappointment with God after Johnson dropped a potentially game-winning catch.
He’s later clarified that he was just emotional and wasn’t actually blaming God – but his words seem to reveal something about his relationship with God, as if it’s some kind of contract: “I do stuff to impress you, God, and in return, you’re obligated to make me happy and successful.” It’s a way to control God, to make Him do what we want.
In Roman Ephesus, this was also how things supposedly worked. Artemis controlled just about everything that mattered. She controlled whether your business was successful, whether your babies were born healthy (or whether you had kids at all) and the city owed its prosperity and safety to her. So if you had a business deal that needed to go well – or a football game, as in Johnson’s case – you visited the Artemesion, performed the prescribed rites, and Artemis would hook you up.
These are pagan prayers, and they define religion for most of humanity, as they have for thousands of years. But they’re wrong – for two reasons. The first reason seems pretty obvious: they’re addressed to the wrong god. The Bible makes it clear that only the one true God – Yahweh, the God of Israel – has power over the events of each human’s life.
The second reason these pagan prayers are wrong, though, is much more subtle. In pagan prayers – and many prayers from well-meaning Christians like you and me – the god simply is a means to an end: financial security, success, a relationship, a child, etc. You’re not after a relationship with such a god – you just want his (or her) stuff.
This is especially difficult for us as Christians, isn’t it? After all, we face very real struggles going on right now that test our faith. Life is never really “under control.” Disease and sickness hurt those closest to us. Circumstances beyond our control (say, a freak week-long ice storm in Texas) cause many of us significant financial stress. And let’s be clear: God our Father does want us to ask Him for the things we need (Matt 6:31-33). He is the One true source of all good things (James 1:17). But look closely at the content of your prayers – based on what you pray for, are you more interested in knowing Christ? Or are you just interested in His stuff?
We pray to Christ because – as Paul writes – God has placed all things under His feet (Eph 1:22). Christ alone – not Artemis, or any other false god we set up – has the power to make all things right, to give us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). But even more, we pray to Christ because as believers, we can have a deep and personal relationship with Him. We can have more than just His stuff – we can have Him! In the end, it is only in Christ that we find what we long for. In Christ alone, we have an indestructible hope in a sure future, free of tears, pain, injustice… even death itself (Rev 21:4).
And that should affect how we pray.
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