When we assume that God is deliberately causing the events that occur after our prayers (e.g. if we pray that we get healthy to deliver a presentation) then whatever happens we must explain God's hand. In other words, if we get well then God was blessing us. If we stay sick, then God wanted to improve our character. Let's call this practise "Reading God's Intention Into An Event" or "Reading God's Intention" for short.
But we know there are times when this is a bad idea. For example, if someone is stealing a TV from a store and they pray "God don't let me get caught", it is not a sign of God's approval if they get away with it. They got away with it because they were a sneaky criminal.
Some of the bad results of "Reading God's Intention into an event" when God was not actually forcing his will on a situation is that:
* You begin to confuse God and society. If we are prosperous we believe that the opulence given to us by our society is actually given to us by God, and we can become bitter towards God when external events go awry.
* You begin to confuse God and your opinions. We tend to narrate our events as God supporting, satan opposing us in any of our endeavors (e.g. God is blessing my ministry, satan is really opposing it). Thus tending to cement ourselves in our current positions and views. The problem with this is that NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, we can read the events of life this way.
* You begin to confuse God and luck. If you are one of the 'lucky ones' (e.g. you are one of the 7 people out of a 1000 who prayed for better financial situation and got the request) you tend think God answered it, and that others should expect God to do this.
Is Every Event Following a Prayer Divinely Designed?
Well these issues are only problems WHEN the events that follow a prayer are not due to God (i.e. they are just the natural course of events that would have occurred regardless of how we prayed) OR if God has deliberately caused something to happen FOR A DIFFERENT reason than we think. But how often does this happen?
1) Mixed motives.
The Bible says that the heart of a person is a deep well "Who can fathom it?". When we looked at the example of the man running away with the TV, we know that he can't ask out of a virtuous heart "Lord don't let me get caught." If he doesn't get caught, and thinks this is an answer to prayer then he is going to misunderstand God.
But how many of our prayers for a better job are based out of pride rather than a pious regard for our family. How many prayers for 'making it through' are actually just the result of a spending pattern than is marked by greed and debt? How many prayers of "use me God" are actually rooted out of a desire to be a Christian superstar? Its hard to know. Even our best works are rarely altrustic. But then, we are in the same situation as the theif praying: we may attribute an 'answer to prayer' from God as condoning an attitude or action or thought pattern he actually despises.
2) Blind to Freewill
There may be times when we ask for a prayer like "Lord really open Mr. Smith's eyes." It is possible that in that particular issue, God is leaving it to Mr. Smith's freewill. Whatever Mr. Smith does, it is not an answer to your prayer, per se, it is simply him exercising his will.
3) Inconsequentials
It is possible that if you pray about a random coin toss, a board game, or the outcome of a sports game on TV that God may ignore those prayers altogether. Those are simply irrelevenat prayers. Whatever happens, we are not learning anything about God, we are simply learning about the competency of professional athletes. (There is a deeper question here - how many of our prayers are about things that are inconsequential to the kingdom. For example, whether you are a pauper or a prince is inconsequential to the kingdom ...)
4) Unobjective views of the situation
There is a whole realm of thought about the objectivity of our perspective on any event. If you pray "Lord help me to do a great job of a presentaiton to these kids" and then you give your presentation only to be met with blank stares ... you might reason "Well God wants me to learn to not seek human glory." However, it could be different altogether, God might actually have answered your prayer in the positive, its just that the group of kids are not very expressive. They might go home and tell their family and friends all about the presentation. Thus even if God does answer our prayer, our lack of ability to correctly read the situation means that we ought not to "Read God's Intention" in th event.
5) Failure to know God's true motives
Perhaps there are times when God truly does answer our prayer, but for ocmpletley opposite reasons than we think. The Israelites prayed for meat ... and they got it! They must have been thinking "We prayed for it and God showed us that he just wants us to ask him for what we want" ... but the Bible goes on to say "God gave them their request, but sent leanness to their souls." God sent them their request out of a frustration - in a divine throwing up of his hands. He quit caring! Understanding God's motives is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, and yet this is what is REQUIRED of us if Reading God's Intention is anything less than an incredibly dangerous act.
Well those are just a curosry glance of some reasons why the danger's posed by "Reading God's Intention" are much more real than we think!
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