Attractive prayers.

I called a good friend of mine tonight and she immediately said to me, "I was just going to call you!" I asked her why and she responded by telling me that she wanted my prayers for her mom. My heart was really touched by her trust in me. She told me about her mom and I gratefully and wholeheartedly accepted her request for prayer.

She is not a Christian but she knows that I am and finds my faith to be ultra-radical. Because of this, I said that I didn't understand why she wanted me to pray for her mom since we didn't share the same faith. As we continued talking, some insights came to mind and I expressed them to her. I explained that I believed God to be a very jealous and angry God in the sense that He alone is worthy of our supplications. He made the world and everything in it. Why would the true God want His own creation to pray to a false god that had not given it life? As the saying goes, don't bite the hand that feeds you. For the biblical allegory, read this.

I told my friend that I too fought with God tooth and nail over these concepts when I was first drawn to Him. How could God hate anything? Why would God despise the prayers of those who pray to other gods? Isn't it simply their way of finding truth and seeking blessings? Wisdom came to me when I understood that the motivation behind God's jealousy and anger is what sets those emotions apart. Being the owner of my body and soul, God is jealous to keep me in His possession. Those things that seek to steal me from His grace give Him righteous cause to be angry. His jealousy and anger are, therefor, motivated by love to protect what is rightfully His. He will destroy those things that deny His children the full experience of His great glory!

I told her that I would never ask a Buddhist to pray for me simply because a Buddhist is not honoring the One God with their prayers. She was surprised but admitted that my argument did make logical sense...if actually true. I brought to her attention that, even though she found my beliefs to be radical (and wrong), by her request she saw something to be desired; something incredibly attractive bound up in those very prayers she asked me to present to God. By contrast, according to my explanation of the meaning behind prayer (to honor the One who gives us breath to pray), I could find no value in prayers that are offered to other gods. Ultimately, I suggested that my prayers are attractive because of the One who is represented in them.

I pray everyday that she, and all who hunger and thirst for righteousness, will be filled.