How To Make Your Prayers More Effective | C.S. Lewis Fireside Chat
Summary
TLDRThe transcript explores the concept of prayer and its efficacy, questioning whether it can be empirically proven and comparing it to human requests. It suggests that prayer, as a request rather than compulsion, may or may not be granted, and that its true purpose extends beyond mere petition. The narrative touches on personal experiences, the nature of divine intervention, and the role of prayer in the broader context of faith and human action, ultimately highlighting the profound mystery of God's responses to prayer.
Takeaways
- 📜 The narrative begins with a personal anecdote about a nagging feeling to get a haircut, which coincided with the barber's prayer for the speaker's visit.
- 🙏 The barber's situation illustrates a possible, yet unproven, causal connection between prayers and events, highlighting the limits of empirical proof in spiritual matters.
- 🏥 An example of miraculous healing is shared, emphasizing that while such events are extraordinary, they cannot rigorously prove a connection between prayer and recovery.
- 🔍 The discussion questions the efficacy of prayer, noting that even if prayed-for events occur, it's impossible to know if they would have happened regardless.
- ⚖️ The concept of prayer as request is explored, contrasting the idea of prayer with the notion of compulsion or magic, which would require invariable success.
- 🧪 A hypothetical experiment about the efficacy of prayer in hospitals is proposed and critiqued, pointing out the inherent contradictions in trying to empirically test prayer.
- 🤔 The script suggests that prayer cannot be scientifically tested because true prayer involves personal intent and cannot be separated from the individual's relationship with the divine.
- 💌 Comparisons to requests made to fellow humans are made, noting that causal connections are difficult to prove even in everyday interactions.
- 🌟 Prayer is described as more than just petition; it is a means of confession, penitence, adoration, and experiencing the presence of God.
- 🔗 The idea of humans coexisting with omnipotence is discussed, suggesting that prayer and actions have a role in the execution of God's will.
- 🚫 The script concludes with a warning against drawing hasty conclusions about the efficacy of prayer, especially as one's spiritual journey progresses.
Q & A
What was the initial intention of the speaker when they woke up one morning?
-The speaker initially planned to get a haircut in preparation for a visit to London.
What changed the speaker's mind about going to London?
-The speaker received a letter that made it clear they did not need to go to London, so they decided to postpone the haircut as well.
How did the speaker describe the nagging feeling they experienced?
-The speaker described it as an unaccountable little nagging in their mind, almost like a voice saying to get their hair cut.
What was significant about the barber the speaker went to?
-The barber was a fellow Christian and a man of many troubles whom the speaker and their brother had sometimes been able to help.
What happened when the speaker arrived at the barber's shop?
-Upon arriving, the barber expressed that he was praying for the speaker to come that day, as he needed help, and if the speaker had come later, they would have been of no use to him.
How does the speaker feel about the possibility of a causal connection between the barber's prayers and their visit?
-The speaker acknowledges that it's not possible to rigorously prove a causal connection, suggesting it might be telepathy or an accident.
What does the speaker say about the efficacy of prayer in relation to medical recovery?
-The speaker mentions a case where prayer and faith led to a miraculous recovery from cancer, but emphasizes that there is no rigorous proof and that medicine itself is not an exact science.
What is the speaker's view on the idea of prayer being an infallible gimmick?
-The speaker dismisses this idea, arguing that prayer is a request and not a guarantee of success. They point out that even the holiest of petitioners in the Bible experienced refusal of their prayers.
What does the speaker suggest about the nature of prayer and its relationship to the divine?
-The speaker suggests that prayer is not a machine or magic, but a personal contact between finite beings and the infinite. It is a part of the continuous act of God, where finite free wills coexist with omnipotence.
How does the speaker address the challenge of empirically proving the efficacy of prayer?
-The speaker argues that empirical proof and disproof are unattainable for prayer because it involves a personal relationship and request, not a controllable experiment. They also note that even if prayers are granted, it doesn't necessarily mean they were the cause.
What does the speaker conclude about the experience of prayer and its outcomes?
-The speaker concludes that the assurance that God hears and sometimes grants our prayers comes not from scientific knowledge but from a personal relationship and understanding of God. They also note that as Christians progress in their faith, miraculous answers to prayer tend to become rarer and more emphatic refusals become more frequent.
Outlines
💇 The Unpredictability of Prayer and Coincidence
The speaker begins with a personal anecdote about deciding against a haircut after a canceled trip to London, only to later feel a compelling urge to get the haircut. This urge coincided with the barber's need for help, suggesting a possible connection between the speaker's decision and the barber's prayers. The speaker then discusses the limitations of proving a causal link between prayer and outcomes, using examples of miraculous recoveries from illness and the inherent uncertainty in attributing success to prayer. The speaker emphasizes that prayer is a request, not a guarantee, and that its efficacy cannot be empirically proven in the same way as scientific phenomena.
🧪 The Feasibility of Testing Prayer through Experimentation
The speaker explores the idea of testing the efficacy of prayer through a hypothetical experiment where a group of people pray for the recovery of patients in one hospital but not another, comparing the outcomes. The speaker argues that such an experiment would be flawed because true prayer must be motivated by genuine concern for the well-being of the sick, not by the desire to test prayer's effectiveness. The speaker suggests that the real purpose of prayer is not to influence outcomes but to maintain a relationship with God, and that any attempt to quantify prayer's success would miss the essence of its spiritual significance.
🙏 The Nature of Prayer Beyond Petition
The speaker delves deeper into the nature of prayer, emphasizing that petitioning for things is only a small part of prayer's broader purpose. Prayer is also about confession, penitence, adoration, and the experience of God's presence. The speaker argues that prayer is not a machine or magic but a personal interaction with God. They challenge the notion that God would alter His plans based on human prayers, suggesting that God's infinite wisdom does not require guidance. Instead, the speaker posits that prayer is part of a larger divine plan where human actions, including prayer, contribute to the unfolding of God's will in ways that are beyond human comprehension.
🕊️ The Paradox of Prayer and Divine Will
The speaker reflects on the paradox of prayer in relation to divine will. They acknowledge the mystery of why some prayers seem to be answered while others are not, using the example of Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane, which was not granted. The speaker suggests that as Christians progress in their faith, they may experience fewer apparent answers to prayer, which could be a sign of deeper spiritual growth. They caution against interpreting answered prayers as proof of divine favor, as this could lead to pride or misunderstanding. Instead, the speaker encourages a humble approach to prayer, recognizing that the true nature of God's interaction with humanity is beyond our full comprehension.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Prayer
💡Telepathy
💡Miracle
💡Empirical Proof
💡Causal Connection
💡Finite and Foolish Creatures
💡Sanctuary
💡Atonement
💡Divine Abdication
💡Infinite Wisdom
💡Free Will
Highlights
The narrative begins with a personal anecdote of deciding against a haircut due to a canceled trip to London.
A compelling internal voice influenced the decision to get a haircut despite the initial cancellation of the trip.
The barber's shop visit coincides with the barber's prayer for the narrator's arrival, hinting at a possible spiritual connection.
The story transitions to a discussion on the limits of medical science and the unpredictability of life outcomes.
A miraculous recovery from cancer is recounted, illustrating the boundaries of medical knowledge and the potential role of faith.
The efficacy of prayer is questioned, challenging the idea of a direct causal link between prayer and outcomes.
The concept of prayer as a request, rather than a guarantee, is emphasized, highlighting the nature of prayer as a humble appeal.
The idea of empirically testing prayer through experiments is introduced, questioning the feasibility and integrity of such an approach.
The necessity of aligning the heart with the words in prayer is discussed, suggesting that true prayer cannot be reduced to a mechanical act.
Comparisons are drawn between prayers to God and requests made to fellow humans, emphasizing the difficulty in proving causality in both scenarios.
The assurance of prayer's effectiveness comes from personal relationships and experiences, not from scientific methods.
Prayer is depicted as a personal contact rather than a magical tool, emphasizing the relational aspect over the transactional.
The complexity of coexisting finite free wills with omnipotence is explored, suggesting a divine abdication that allows for human agency.
The idea that prayer might become rarer and more discerning as one's faith deepens is introduced, challenging the notion of constant miraculous intervention.
The narrative concludes with a reflection on the mystery of God's ways, particularly in the context of suffering and the apparent forsaking of prayers.
The importance of humility in attributing outcomes to prayer is stressed, warning against hasty conclusions and self-serving interpretations.
The profound concept of prayer as an integral part of the continuous act of God is presented, suggesting that prayer is not separate but intertwined with divine action.
Transcripts
Sam arm years ago I got up one morning
intending to have my hair cut in
preparation for a visit to London and
the first letter I opened made it clear
I need not go to
London so I decided to put the haircut
off
too but then there began the most
unaccountable little nagging in my mind
almost like a voice saying get it cut
off the same go and get it
cut in the end I could stand it no
longer I
went now my barber at that time was a
fellow
Christian and a man of many troubles who
my brother and I had sometimes been able
to help the moment I opened his shop
door he said oh I was praying you you
might come today and in fact if I had
come a day or so later I should have
been of no use to him it it AED me it
ores me still but of course one cannot
rigorously prove a causal connection
between the Barber's prayers and my
visit it might be telepathy it might be
accident I have stood by the bedside of
a woman whose thigh bone was eaten
through with cancer and who had thriving
colonies of the disease in many other
bones as well it took three people to
move her in bed the doctors predicted a
few months of Life the nurses who often
know better a few weeks a good man laid
his hands on her and
prayed a year later the patient was
walking uphill too through rough
Woodland and the man who took the last
x-ray photos was saying these bones are
a solid as rock it's
miraculous but once again there is no
rig ous proof medicine as all true
doctors admit is not an exact
science we need not invoke the
supernatural to explain the
falsification of its prophecies you need
not unless you choose believe in a
causal connection between the prayers
and the
recovery the question then
arises what sort of evidence would prove
the efficacy of
prayer the thing we pray for may happen
but how can you ever know it was not
going to happen anyway even if the thing
were indisputably
miraculous it would not follow that the
miracle had occurred because of your
prayers the answer surely is that a
compulsive empirical proof such as we
have in the Sciences can never be
attained some things are proved by The
Unbroken uniformity of our experiences
the law of gravitation is established by
the fact that in our experience all
bodies without exception obey
it now even if all the things that
people prayed for happened which they do
not this would not prove what Christians
mean by the efficacy of
prayer for prayer is
request the essence of request as
distinct from compulsion is that it may
or may not be granted and if an
infinitely wise being listens to the
requests of finite and foolish creatures
of course he will sometimes Grant and
sometimes refuse them invariable success
in prayer would not prove the Christian
doctrine at
all it would prove something much more
like
magic a power in certain human
beings to control or or
compel the course of
nature there are no doubt passages in
the New Testament which may seem at
first sight to promise an invariable
granting of our
prayers but that cannot be what they
really
mean for in the very heart of the story
we meet a glaring instance to the
contrary in gson the holiest of all
petitioners prayed three times that a
certain cup might pass from him it did
not after that the idea that prayer is
recommended to us as a sort of
infallible gimmick may be
dismissed other things are proved not
simply by experience but by those
artificially contrived experiences which
we call
experiments could this be done about
prayer I will pass over the objection
that no Christian could take part in
such a
project because he has been forbidden it
you must not try experiments on God your
master forbidden or not is the thing
even
possible I have seen it suggested that a
team of people the more the better
should agree to pray as hard as they
knew how over a period of 6 weeks for
all the patients in hospital a and none
of those in hospital
B then you would TT up the results and
see if a had more cures and fewer deaths
and I suppose you would repeat the
experiment at various times and places
so as to eliminate the influence of
irrelevant
factors the trouble is that I do not see
how any real prayer could go on under
such
condition words without thoughts never
to Heaven go
says the king in Hamlet simply to say
prayers is not to pray otherwise the
team of properly trained parrots would
serve as well as men for our
experiment you cannot pray for the
recovery of the sick unless the end you
have in view is their
recovery but you can have no motive for
Desiring the recovery of all the
patients in one hospital and none of
those in another
you are not doing it in order that
suffering should be
relieved you are doing it to find out
what
happens the real purpose and the nominal
purpose of your prayers are at
variance in other words whatever your
tongue and teeth and knees may do you
are not
praying the experiment demands an
impossibility empirical proof and
disproof are then
unobtainable but this conclusion will
seem less depressing if we remember that
prayer is request and compare it with
other specimens of the same thing we
make requests of our fellow creatures as
well as of God we ask for the salt we
ask for a raise in pain we ask a friend
to feed the cat while we are on our
holidays we ask a woman to marry
us sometimes we get what we ask for and
sometimes
not but when we do it is not nearly so
easy as one might supposed to prove with
scientific certainty a causal connection
between the asking and the
getting your neighbor may be a Humane
person who would not have let your cat
starve even if you had forgotten to make
any
Arrangement your employer is never so
likely to Grant your request for a ray
as when he is aware that you could get
better money from a rival firm and is
quite possibly intending to secure You
by a raise in any case as for the lady
who consents to marry you are you sure
she had not decided to do so
already your proper s you know might
have been the result not the
cause of her
decision aain important conversation
might never never have taken class
unless she had intended that it
should thus in some measure the same
doubt that hangs about the causal
efficacy of our prayers to God hangs
also about our prayers to
man whatever we get we might have been
going to get anyway but only as I say in
some measure our friend boss and wife
may tell us that they acted because we
asked and we may know them so well as to
feel sure first that they are saying
what they believe to be true and
secondly that they understand their own
motives well enough to be right but
notice that when this happens our
Assurance has not been gained by the
methods of science we do not try the
control experiment of refusing the raise
or breaking off the
engagement and then making our request
again under fresh condition
our Assurance is quite different in kind
from scientific
knowledge it is born out of our personal
relation to the other parties not from
knowing things about them but from
knowing them our Assurance if we reach
an
assurance that God always hears and
sometimes grants our prayers and that
apparent granting are not merely
fortuitous can only come in the same
sort of way there can be no question of
tabulating successes and failures and
trying to decide whether the successes
are too numerous to be accounted for by
chance those who best know a man best
know whether when he did what they asked
he did it because they
asked I think those who best know God
will best know whether he sent me to the
barber's shop because the barber prayed
for up till now we have been tackling
the whole question in the wrong way and
on the wrong level the very question
does prayer work puts us in the wrong
frame of mind from the
outset work as if it were magic or a
machine something that functions
automatically prayer is either a Sheer
Illusion or a personal contact between
embryonic incomplete persons ourselves
and the utterly concrete person prayer
in the sense of petition asking for
things is a small part of it confession
and penitence are its threshold
adoration its
Sanctuary the presence and vision and
enjoyment of God it's Bread and Wine in
it God shows himself to us that he
answers prayers is a
corollary not necessarily the most
important
one from that Revelation what he does is
learned from what he
is petitionary prayer is nonetheless
both allowed and commanded to us give us
our daily bread and no doubt it raises a
theoretical
problem can we believe that God ever
really modifies his action in response
to the suggestions of
men for Infinite Wisdom does not need
telling what is best an infinite
goodness needs no urging to do it but
neither does God need any of those
things that are done by finite agents
whether living or inanimate he could if
he chose repair our bodies miraculously
without food or give us food without the
aid of farmers Bakers and butchers or
knowledge without the aid of learned men
or convert the Heathen without
missionaries instead he allows soil
and weather and animals and the muscles
minds and wills of men to cooperate in
the execution of his
will God said Pascal instituted prayer
in order to lend to his creatures the
Dignity of
causality but not only prayer whenever
we act at all he lends us that
dignity it is not really stranger nor
less strange that my prayers should
affect the course of events
than that my other actions should do so
they have not advised or changed God's
mind that is his overall purpose but
that purpose will be realized in
different ways according to the actions
including the prayers of his creatures
for he seemed to do nothing of himself
which he can possibly delegate to his
creatures He commands us to do slowly
and blundering what he could do
perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye
he allows us to neglect what he would
have us do or to fail perhaps we do not
fully realize the problem so to call it
of enabling finite free wills to coexist
with
omnipotence it seems to involve at every
moment almost a sort of divine
abdication We Are Not Mere recip I or
Spectators we are either privileged to
share in the game or compelled to
collaborate in the work to wield our
little
Trident is this amazing process simply
creation going on before our
eyes this is how no life matter God
makes
something indeed makes God's out of
nothing so at least it seems to me but
what I have offered can be at the very
best only a mental model or
symbol all that we say on such subjects
must be merely analogical and
parabolic the reality is doubtless not
comprehensible by our faculties but we
can at any rate try to expel bad
analogies and bad
Parables prayer is not a machine is not
magic it is not advice offered to
God our act when we pray must not any
more than all our other
acts be separated from the continuous
Act of God himself in which
alone all finite causes
operate it would be even worse to think
of those who get what they pray for as a
sort of Court favorites people who have
influence with the
throne the refused prayer of Christ in
Gethsemane is answer enough to that and
I dare not leave out the hard saying
which I once heard from an experienced
Christian I have seen many striking
answers to prayer and more than one that
I thought
miraculous but they usually come at the
beginning before conversion or soon
after it as the Christian Life proceeds
they tend to be
rarer the refusals too are not only more
frequent they become more
unmistakable more
emphatic does God then forsake just
those who serve him best well he who
served him best of all said near his
tortured death why hast Thou forsaken me
when God becomes man that man of all
others is least comforted by God at his
greatest need there is a mystery here
which even if I had the power I might
not have the courage to
explore meanwhile little people like you
and me if our prayers are sometimes
granted beyond all hope and
probability had better not draw Hasty
conclusions to our own
Advantage if we were stronger we might
be less tenderly
treated if we were braver we might be
sent with far less help to defend far
more desperate posts in the great
battle
for
Weitere ähnliche Videos ansehen
THE FIRST TIME I MET DADDY ADEBOYE FACE TO FACE I STARTED PANICKING BECAUSE OF THIS - APST MIKE
Disappointed in Prayer - Is It Me?
DOES PRAYERLESSNESS CAUSE POWERLESSNESS - DR ABEL DAMINA
BGBC 042124 SS final
He ISOLATES YOU for a REASON, do not despair.
The Word Exposed - Catechism (Prayer in Christian Life)
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)