I Samuel 1:1-20, Kingdoms pp. 91, 92
“Answered Prayer”
October 7, 2018 – Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
“Why not do a scientific study on prayer?” Jim, a doctor in our church in Nebraska, asked me one morning as we played racquetball. He was fascinated with the idea that the difference prayer makes ought to be empirically observable. As a neurologist, he was often involved with careful studies of the effectiveness of various drugs in treating neurological conditions. Why couldn’t the same method be applied to prayer?
As we talked about it, Jim gave up his plans to study prayer statistically. Partly he was concerned about the Christian ethics of it all. You would need a control group. “How could you decide with integrity not to pray for a specific group of people?” he wondered.
Moreover, how could you control all the relevant factors? Suppose you studied a group of women like Hannah, praying for them to conceive a child? How could you be sure some of your control group were not, like Hannah was, praying for themselves? The human variables in this kind of study would be huge.
Nonetheless, there have been many attempts to submit prayer to rigorous scientific investigation. A classic paper was published by Francis Galton in the nineteenth century.[1] He analyzed existing data to determine the effectiveness of prayer. He noted that, of all people, sovereign heads of states, kings and queens, probably receive more prayer on their behalf than anyone else in the world. Daily prayers are offered in every church in England for the long life of their sovereign. Yet analyzing the death ages of sovereigns compared to the general population showed that, if anything, kings and queens live shorter lives than others. The long life of the current queen of England may be changing that picture a little.
A few positive results have appeared in more contemporary investigations. There are two studies on the effect of praying for patients in cardiac care units in San Francisco and Kansas City.[2] A British experiment looked at how prayer affected the recovery rates for nearly 3,400 patients with bloodstream infections.[3] And in South Korea, scientists looked at the success of in-vitro fertilization embryo transfer in relationship to prayer.[4]
There have been studies of the effect of general religious commitment on recovery from depression,[5] and studies on the results of praying for plants, an attempt to eliminate the human, psychosomatic variables.[6] Perhaps most recently, a serious, careful modern statistical experiment was done by Harvard professor Herbert Benson in 2006, “Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP).”[7] STEP had three groups of cardiac patients, two of them prayed for by local churches under carefully controlled, double-blind, experimental methods. The results showed no measurable positive increase in surgical outcomes for those who received prayer over those who did not.
The Bible, however, presents a different picture of prayer. God’s answers are not to be found in double-blind experiments involving a statistically significant sample of randomly selected individuals. Instead, God responds as He did to Hannah, with loving compassion poured out on the heart which approaches Him in faith. God’s answers are not randomly distributed, but specifically directed to the soul in need.
Hannah’s need arose from an intolerable domestic situation. It’s there at the top of page 91. Her husband Elkanah had two wives. The other wife, Peninnah, was a regular baby-machine, but Hannah had never borne a child. The pain of childlessness can be miserable today, but in those days it was unbearable. Children were a blessing from God, so people incorrectly reasoned that a childless woman was cursed by God. Her whole reason for existing was in doubt. She was a person without a purpose.
Even worse, Hannah was was reminded of her lack every year when they went up to worship and sacrifice at Shiloh before the Ark of the Covenant. Meat was rare in their diets. So portions of the sacrificial meal were a great prize. Elkanah gave Penininah portions appropriate to the number of her children. But verse 5 explains that he always gave Hannah either a “double portion” or “only one choice portion.” Either way, it showed Elkanah’s greater affection for Hannah despite the fact she had no child. This provoked Peninnah, who in turn constantly provoked Hannah. Hannah would start crying.
Elkanah used a typically male strategy to deal with a weeping woman. He tried to cheer her up by telling her to look on the bright side. After urging her to come back and eat, he would say, “You have me—isn’t that better than having ten sons?” Raise your hand if you think that worked. You can bet that Hannah only started sobbing even louder.
This kept up year after year until one day in her weeping after the sacrificial meal, Hannah began to pray. Her prayer was so fervent that she included a vow: If God would give her a son, she would give him back, dedicate him to the Lord for his whole life.
The old priest Eli was sitting nearby and saw Hannah praying. He didn’t hear her, because she was praying silently it says at the bottom of page 91. That’s one major difference between us and people of Bible times. Praying and even reading silently was almost unknown. Men and women were less “interior” than we are now. Praying was always done out loud. Reading was with the voice as well as the eyes. Expression of thought involved the body. Even though silent, Hannah still moved her lips.
Eli thought Hannah was drunk and he rebuked her. But she explained that her strange actions were in fact the most heartfelt prayer. She tells him that she hasn’t been pouring down wine or beer, she’s been pouring out her heart to God.
At the top of page 92, Eli understood and had compassion on her. He blessed her and added his own prayer that God would give her what she asked. It’s not clear if Eli knows he is being prophetic, but Hannah obviously feels something has changed. She eats and goes home at peace. She believed what it says then happened. The next time she and Elkanah had relations, “the Lord remembered her plea.”
We come then to the happy conclusion, “in due time she gave birth to a son.” She named him Samuel. In Hebrew, Shemuel, sounds like a combination of the words for “hearing” and the word for “god.” So in Samuel’s name, Hannah acknowledges that she has a son because God heard.
Hannah’s prayer and God’s answer is a universe away from calculated studies attempting to find a small percentage difference in outcomes produced by praying. You don’t get 27% of a baby. For Hannah the difference was a hundred percent. The woman who was childless prayed. Now she nursed her son. The percentages weren’t in her favor. God was in her favor. He heard her and He answered.
You might wonder how God’s plan for the world can include this kind of intimate, individual and personal answer to prayer. If God already knows all that will happen, what difference do our prayers make? Long before Hannah prayed, God knew she would and that He would answer. How does prayer change anything?
Some Christians believe that, from God’s point of view, prayer does not change anything. Every event in the world is caused directly by God. In God’s perfect control of everything He has simply determined both that the prayer would be offered and that He would answer. It looks to us as if prayer makes a difference, but that’s only for our benefit, so that we learn to trust God.
Even without that extreme view that God makes it all happen, some Christians will say that prayer largely changes the one who prays, but doesn’t much affect God. After all, most of the time there is no observable, quantifiable change in the course of events resulting from our prayers. So prayer is mostly a kind of meditation, bringing you peace and spiritual growth, but not really affecting the course of events in the world.
Hannah would be totally baffled by this line of thought. Until God actually responded and assured her that He would change things, her prayers gave her no comfort at all. It says she “was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord.” I doubt she would have bought the idea that prayer is a sort of meditation bringing her inner peace.
No, the biblical concept of prayer is a petition which captures God’s attention, which invites His response, which looks for Him to do something. Prayer in the Bible changes things. So recently some evangelical Christians have gone to another extreme in their understanding of how prayer might change what God does.
The theology known as “open theism” believes that for prayer to really work, to actually have some effect on God, it must be the case that God has not planned or even known everything in the future. The future is open, not only for us, but for God. Just like you and me, God waits to see what will happen. So prayer makes a difference. The divine plan is not all figured out yet. As we pray, God then decides how to respond. And He doesn’t know we will pray until we actually do!
Open theism is not true to the Bible’s concept of prayer nor of God. The God of the Bible knows the future completely. His plan is complete from all eternity. Psalm 139 verse 16 says “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” In Matthew 6:8, Jesus says, “your Father knows what you need before you ask.” Our needs and our prayers have been known by God forever. It is no help to our understanding of prayer to adopt the view that God makes it all up as He goes along.
Somehow we must hold tight to two biblical attitudes. One is that prayer is significant. It really does affect the course of events. The other is that God knew what He was going to do from the beginning. Putting these two together is not easy, but I would like to offer the following suggestion, using a clue in Luke 11, verses 9 and 10.
Jesus made strong promises about prayer: “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” God’s answers to prayer are conditional. He gives, if you ask. He reveals, if you seek. He opens the way, if you knock. God responds, on the condition that we do, in fact, pray.
Yes, God has known all along that He will answer our prayers. But His plan to answer is based on something He has also always known. God knew whether we would pray or not. And He planned accordingly. Part of His planning for our lives is a conditional plan, based on what we will choose to do. If we choose to believe and pray, He has planned an answer. If we choose not to pray, then His plans for us are different. As Hannah discovered dramatically, praying changes everything, including God’s providential plan for us.
Sure, God could give us all the blessings He wants to give us, even if we didn’t ask in prayer. But as every parent here knows, there is something good about being asked. There is a benefit not just for a parent in the warm feeling of being needed, but also for a child who learns to ask in the right way. Your children grow and mature as they learn to ask for things that are really good for them. They develop respect for others as they learn to ask with love and politeness—to say “please,” for one thing. And they grow in character as they learn to ask with patience, realizing they cannot have everything they want right away. God offers us the same sort of lessons in spiritual character as we learn to pray in right ways.
God listens to our prayers like a loving father listens to his children. That’s why statistical studies of prayer are doomed. God’s answers are not a function of some spiritual law like the natural laws science examines. They are the result of personal interaction. God is not a cosmic force. He is a loving Father who responds to us as one person to another. If praying makes some small statistical difference in my chances for recovery, what kind of hope is that? One chance out of 95 instead of one out of 100? That’s just playing the odds.
But if in prayer we are talking to a person who really cares for us, who knows all our anguish and bitterness, as He knew Hannah’s, then we have the hope of touching His heart, of changing His mind and His plan, of calling forth all the love He has for us. As we heard in the Gospel from Mark 10, He loves us like a father loves his children.
Some of you have heard the story of our daughter Joanna’s bunny. When she was little she asked us and prayed to God for a rabbit for several months. Part of what hindered her acquisition of a bunny was my wife’s good common sense. Practically speaking, pets just complicate life. Who is going to feed the rabbit and clean the cage? Who’s going to take care of it when we go away? What happens when it gets sick? Beth said no.
Eventually Joanna’s patient insistence touched Beth’s heart. She saw what it meant to our daughter. So Beth relented and opened the door to let God arrange things. “If we see a bunny with a hutch in the paper for $25 or less, you can have it.” The next day Joanna opened the paper and there was an ad for a bunny she named Oed. Thinking about occasions just like this, Jesus said, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” A little child can touch the heart of her mother so that common sense is set aside and love prevails. So our prayers can touch the heart of God our Father.
Of course, we do not always get what we ask for in prayer. We’ll see that happen to David the king next week. But Jesus makes it clear that one gift is always ours when we ask. To everyone who comes to Him asking through faith in Jesus Christ, God gives the gift of Himself. He gives His Holy Spirit, who takes up residence in our hearts and brings us ultimately into all the joy we’ve ever asked for… and more.
Amen.
Valley Covenant Church
Eugene/Springfield, Oregon
Copyright © 2018 by Stephen S. Bilynskyj
[1] “Statistical Inquiries into the Effectiveness of Prayer,” The Fortnightly Review (August 1, 1872), No. LXVIII, New Series.
[2] See, Byrd, R.C., “Positive Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer in a Coronary Care Unit Population,” Southern Medical Journal (1988), 81: 826-829, and Harris, W.S., Gowda, M., Kolb, J.W., Strychacz, C.P., Vacek, J.L., Jones, P.G., Forker, A., O’Keefe, J.H., and McCallister, B.D., “A Randomized, Controlled Trial of the Effects of Remote, Intercessory Prayer on Outcomes in Patients Admitted to the Coronary Care Unit,” Archives of Internal Medicine (1999), 159:2273-2278.
[3]Leibovici, L., “Effects of remote, retroactive intercessory prayer on outcomes in patients with bloodstream infection: randomised controlled trial,” British Medical Journal (2001), 323, 1450-1451.
[4] Cha, K.Y., D. P. Wirth, and R. A. Lobo., “Does Prayer Influence the Success of in Vitro Fertilization–Embryo Transfer? Report of a Masked, Randomized Trial,” Journal of Reproductive Medicine (2001), 46:781-787.
[5] Harold G. Koenig, M.D., M.H.Sc., Linda K. George, Ph.D., and Bercedis L. Peterson, Ph.D., “Religiosity and Remission of Depression in Medically Ill Older Patients,” American Journal of Psychiatry (1998), 155:536-542.
[6] See Larry Dossey, Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995) for citations of several studies.
[7] American Heart Journal (2006), 151(4):934-932.