Early
in C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters,
admonishing his demonic protégé Wormwood on the matter of prayer, Screwtape
said, “The best thing, where it is possible, is to keep the patient from the
serious intention of praying altogether.” In light of the latest round of
radical Islamic terror in the U.S., it seems that many Americans burdened with a liberal worldview—especially those at the Daily News—have decided to listen to
the demons whispering in their ears.
I shouldn’t be too harsh. Many of us Christians have given
prayer a bad name. Too often we’ve made prayer all about ourselves—our wants,
wishes, and desires—with little regard for what is really needed in the world
around us. Thus too many of us often pray, “babbling like pagans,” as if we’re
ordering from the worn-out menu (that we’ve practically memorized) at our
favorite restaurant.
Of course, this is not to say that it’s wrong to ask for
things, even for ourselves, when we pray. “The Lord’s Prayer,” which Christ
used to teach us how to pray, contains more than one personal request. Three
times, and significantly, to no avail, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked
that “this cup be taken from me.”
Virtually every serious and significant Christian scholar
throughout history has made note of the importance of prayer in the life of a
believer. Prayer changes the world. More importantly, prayer changes us. As
C.S. Lewis notes, “one must train the habit of Faith… That is why daily prayer
and religious reading and churchgoing are necessary parts of the Christian
life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe.” Thus prayer
doesn’t so much lead us to “getting” as it does to us growing.
As Lewis also notes, prayer reveals our “bankruptcy,” or,
put another way, our powerlessness. Prayer helps us understand who we really
are, and who God really is. (Note how the Lord’s Prayer begins: “Our Father in
heaven, holy is your name…”) And when necessary, prayer leads us up to the
vital moment at which we “turn to God and say, ‘You must do this. I can’t.’”
Jesus warned us that without Him, we would accomplish
nothing in this world—at least nothing of any lasting and good eternal
consequence. Usually, it is only when we spend a significant deal of time with
Him that we realize such. By nature, we humans are quite stubborn and full of
pride. Any parent who has spent much time with their infant and toddler
children knows this well!
We often think ourselves quite wise, smart, and capable.
However, it is one thing for a two-year-old to demand cookies and Kool-Aid for
lunch; it is quite another when a drunk 21-year-old man decides that he is
sober enough to drive, or when a 30-year-old woman decides that her two children
will be fine if she leaves her husband for another man, or when a 40-year-old
man decides that the world owes him something and it is time to take it.
As tragic as the sinful, selfish choices of an individual
adult can sometimes be, they often pale in comparison to a pastor, a politician,
or a CEO who is “wise in his own eyes.” As the prophet Isaiah warned, “Woe to those who call evil good and good
evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for
sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe
to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in
their own sight.” In these times, much “darkness for light and light for
darkness” has resulted from those who’ve ignored the eternal truths of our
Creator.
As did the Israelites (noted at the end of
the book of Judges), a culture “wise in its own eyes” does what is “right in
its own eyes.” Currently, the disastrous results of such “wisdom” are frequently
revealed throughout the United States. From the beginning of this nation, many
of our founders warned us against such foolishness.
Reflecting on the victory over the British
and writing on the hated Stamp Act which helped to launch the Revolutionary War,
Patrick Henry noted, “Whether this will prove a blessing or a
curse, will depend upon the use our people make of the blessings, which a
gracious God hath bestowed on us. If they are wise, they will be great and
happy. If they are of a contrary character, they will be
miserable. Righteousness alone can exalt them as a nation.” (The last
sentence is a direct reference to Proverbs 14:34.)
On April 30, 1789, in his Inaugural address
to both Houses of Congress, President George Washington declared, “No people can be bound to acknowledge and
adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people
of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character
of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of
providential agency…We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles
of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules
of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained…”
Daniel Webster, a U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, and
“Defender of the Constitution,” was born just after the American victory over
the British. Arguing before the Supreme Court (on behalf of the government!)
that a school could not exclude the
Bible, said “If we abide by the
principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to
prosper; If we and our posterity shall be true to the Christian religion, if we
and they shall live always in the fear of God and shall respect His
Commandments...we may have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our
country;...But if we and our posterity neglect religious instruction and
authority; violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of
morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us
together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury
all our glory in profound obscurity.”
Additionally, burdened with the problems
and challenges that come with leadership, many of our national leaders—even
political leaders—have encouraged, openly called, and themselves engaged in,
prayer.
In 1787, as the Constitutional Convention was
on the verge of collapse, 81-year-old Ben Franklin—considered by most a
very secular-minded man—arose and gave a speech that helped changed the course
of the Convention. In the speech he declared, “In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were
sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection.-
Our prayers, Sir, were heard, & they were graciously answered. All of us
who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a
superintending providence in our favor.
“To that kind
providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of
establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that
powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?
“I have lived, Sir, a
long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this
truth- that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to
the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his
aid?
“We have been assured,
Sir, in the sacred writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House they labour
in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without
his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than
the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local
interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a
reproach and bye word down to future ages.”
Franklin’s
rebuke and call for prayer were powerful and authoritative. Franklin was a man respected by every
delegate at the Convention. Following the address, James Madison moved, and Roger
Sherman seconded the motion that Franklin’s appeal for prayer be enacted.
However, because the Convention had no money to pay for a minister, Franklin’s
motion did not pass. However, Edmund Randolph, a delegate from Virginia,
further moved “that a sermon be preached at the request of the convention on
the 4th of July, the anniversary of Independence; and thenceforward
prayers be used in ye Convention every morning.”
As historian
David Barton notes, “As it turns out, after the Convention, and nine days
after the first Constitutional Congress convened with a quorum (April 9, 1789),
they implemented Franklin's recommendation. Two chaplains of different
denominations were appointed, one to the House and one to the Senate, with a
salary of $500 each. This practice continues today, posing no threat to the First
Amendment.” (It’s also interesting to note that, as author Tim LaHaye points
out, Congress has opened both houses with prayer ever since.)
President Washington issued two
Thanksgiving Day Prayer Proclamations. In the first one, in 1789, he declared,
“And also that we may then unite in most
humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of
Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to
enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several
and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government
a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just,
and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to
protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown
kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord;
to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the
increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all
mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.”
In September of 1862, just after the Union defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Lincoln
penned his Meditation on the Divine Will
(which his secretaries would later reveal were originally written for Lincoln’s
eyes only):
“The will of God
prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the
will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against
the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible
that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party --
and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best
adaptation to effect His purpose.
“I am almost ready to
say that this is probably true -- that God wills this contest, and wills that
it shall not end yet. By his mere great power, on the minds of the now
contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human
contest. Yet the contest began. And, having begun He could give the final
victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.”
On September 17, 1862, the bloodiest day in U.S. military
history, Union forces defeated Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Armies at
Antietam in Maryland. At the battle’s end, approximately 25,000 American men
are killed, wounded, or missing. The victory held special significance for
Lincoln.
A few days later, in the cabinet meeting on September 22,
Lincoln announced his decision to issue the Preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation. The best account of the event comes from the diary of Lincoln’s
Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles.
According to Welles, Lincoln “remarked that he had made a vow, a covenant, that if God gave us the
victory in the approaching battle, he would consider it an indication of Divine
will, and that it was his duty to move forward in the cause of emancipation. It
might be thought strange, he said, that he had in this way submitted the
disposal of matters when the way was not clear to his mind what he should do.
God had decided this question in favor of the slaves. He was satisfied it was
right, was confirmed and strengthened in his action by the vow and the
results.”
Imagine that. American slaves were freed, in no small part,
because the President of the United States saw it as a matter of “Divine will.”
(Of course, because of their relationship with their Heavenly Father, millions
of other praying Americans already well knew how God saw the matter of slavery
in the United States.)
In spite of the vain and foolish protests by
liberals, as even politicians throughout American history demonstrate, praying Christians
are almost never do-nothing Christians. Quite the contrary, the more time we
spend with our Creator, the better we get to know Him. The better we know Him,
the more we trust Him. The more we trust Him, the more we want to do what He
says. And of course, if we want real and lasting change from the problems that
afflict us, we will do as He directs us.
(See a version of this column at American Thinker.)
Copyright 2015, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
