Weaponized Prayer

After a less than pleasant phone conversation, many years ago, with an Oklahoma fundamentalist, she said, "I'm praying for you."

To which I said, "Please don't, because your prayer for me is hostile and adversarial. It isn't loving prayer."

I doubt if I stopped her "praying" for me, but I've subsequently thought about how prayer can be weaponized," i.e. telling God how to change someone according to my thoughts; such prayer isn't prayer at all, but an aggression, an aggression both on the gates of heaven and upon the person's spirit. And those who engage in such prayer actually draw further from God.

So, I'm careful in offering prayer ... to not weaponize my prayer life.

In this regard, I think that no prayer is best in selective cases ... leaving the matter in God's hands, which is very much a matter of prayer.

There's so much that I pray about, but even then, I say the person's name, or name the need, and then simply say, "Jesus my LORD."

No long-winded speech about what God ought to be doing with so-and-so, no wrestling with this and that, no pleading for God to give me something, or to give something to those I love ... no laundry list of dos and don'ts for God, and how God ought to be running the world.

Yes, I know the parables about prayer - persistence, and such, but as a matter of course, I avoid telling God what to do, though I've done that a time or two in my life, especially so when I'm praying for my loved one, or have found myself in desperate straits ... there may be such moments, but ordinarily they're few and far between.

So ... I work hard to let people and things remain in the hands of God ... by refraining from expressing my expectations and needs. I think most of the time this is best for me.

Perhaps others have a different calling about how prayer ought to be in their lives ... though I think all of us are tempted to "weaponize" our prayers, i.e to call down fire from heaven ... yet, like most any weapon, zealously used, such prayer is likely to cause serious harm.

Oh well, just some further thoughts about prayer ...