Welcome back again to another podcast of Struggling Well. And those of you who've listened in the past know that there's three of us who sit in this room because
whoa four
oh Gus I'm sorry forgot Gus is not going to contribute today though but Tim Briggs sits here with us and we from now every now and then bring Tim into the actual podcast because we have a lot of great conversations off air with him and so Tim I'm going to turn to you to introduce what we're talking about today
as always it's an honor to be with you guys and be on the podcast I mentioned to you this to a few weeks ago and I thought it'd be a great podcast episode for the three of us to talk about. A friend from church asked me a really good question that I have been wrestling with for weeks and I think you guys have as well.
Her question was this. Why do we as Christians pray contingency prayers? And so what she meant by that is, you know, if someone has cancer, we'll pray something like we pray for George to be healed from this cancer, but if not, you know, may he feel, you know, your presence, Lord. May he be encouraged, things like that. And so, she was just observing that in Christian culture, you know, what we really want in that situation is healing,
right?
And we'll pray for it, but we end up praying more for what happens if that doesn't occur. And she was just wondering, why do we do that? Why do we do that? And so you guys are the answer, folks.
No,
I definitely have some thoughts. I want to pass it to you. why do we why do we pray that way?
Is it biblical to pray that way? What does it say about us that we pray like that?
Wow. I since Tim brought that question up to us from somebody at his church, it has been haunting me. And I've been thinking as I'm praying and Prayer is always well for me it's a struggle. we'll go into that another time. The whole idea of prayer but that idea of when I ask why do I come in with well here's the question. Here's what I'm asking Lord. But I'm going to back off of that. Is it because I'm afraid he's going to look bad that if he doesn't answer that prayer then somehow God's going to be ashamed? What do you think that?
Well, yeah. I think so. I'll go. back to the broader subject of prayer. in the four gospels, there's only one time that's recorded that the disciples ask Jesus how to do something, how to teach them. And that's in Luke where they say, "Lord, teach us how to pray." It's the only time that they ever ask him to teach them anything. That's not to say they didn't learn from him, but that's the truth. In the Lord's prayer, we pray, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Then we say this, "Your will be done." And so I do think that there are times where I have my desires, the things I long to see happen. but I have to recognize that I don't have all the facts. And so I pray in his will. Father, if it's your will, I pray that this person is healed. If it's your will, I pray this. If not, I have to surrender. And this is my position that I don't know all things that he does.
And I agree with you there. We don't know all that he knows. However, if he's our father, he wants us to come to him with all our requests. And he's God. He can sift out what's good, what's bad. The spirit of God is interceding for us. Jesus is at the right hand of the father forever interceding for us. But I think what hit me when Tim brought that question up is Yes, his will be done, but it's how do I view him as my father? How comfortable am I going to my father and laying it all out? I mean, when I read the Psalms, David is laying it out in a big way. I'm just there's a lot of ways you can look at this. Tim, when you think about this with this particular question, where do you land? And since you've been haunted by it as well, what's what have been some of your thoughts? Yeah, I was just thinking about kind of the biblical record on contingency prayers. I mean, you could say Jesus prayed a contingency prayer
in the garden when he was talking about, you know, may this cup pass from me.
I think that's a contingency prayer.
I think about the Psalms. I don't I can't think of a contingency prayer there. There may be. I think what you hear is just a lot of honest, vulnerable, unfil filtered direct requests to the Lord. and so what I've resolved is that I think we should be humble enough to pray a contingency like prayer of like, Lord, I don't know what you're up to. You may be up to this, you may be up to that, you may be up to something I don't know.
So, I think there should be humility in our prayer, but there should be boldness, too.
Yeah.
I think about Philippians. I think it's Philippians 2. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition, present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And so, the Lord wants to hear from us.
he's big enough to hear our big prayers, our direct prayers.
I think with me, I do have a tendency to probably hedge my prayers more than I should.
And I think it's because There is that fear of what happens if I ask for this thing and it doesn't happen. Am I prepared for that disappointment? There's also a part of me too that still wrestles with, you know, does God really care about this? Is he does he really care that I'm praying? Is he actually going to take that into consideration? And so I do think there's a balance between the humility and the boldness. But I think for me it's been provoking because it's uncovered a lot of fear in my heart
as I pray for things.
Yeah. And I would say this too. So as parents and we all three of us are parents, many people listening are parents. You your kids make a request of you and you sometimes in a loving way say no because you know what's best for them. They don't necessarily know what's best. And so God could answer my prayer with yes, I'll do that. No, that's not what's best. Or wait. And I don't I'm not trying to take away the tension that all this provides for us in our life. But if he is my loving father, do I ultimately yield to him to know what's best?
we could go round about this because it's fascinating question and Tim you mentioned a second ago about Jesus in the garden and yeah it was a contingency prayer but here's the thing that just kind of overrides the contingency prayer to me is and come in here if I'm sounding off ultimately for him it was the obedience so yeah if this cup can pass cuz this cup is going to be awful but your will be done not mine and it's the I think God requires from us obedience and trust and but I find that I don't sometimes even trust him enough to ask because I'm wondering if he doesn't answer it will he then give me the ability to bear the no will I be what will I do with the disappointment so don't I don't even want to go there God I'm not going to ask it because if I go there
and you don't answer in a timely manner of course that's always us we want it done in a certain way then It's better for me not to ask because then I won't lose any trust in you.
Yeah. And so this whole topic is an important topic I think because we are told to pray. We are told to come before our father and to pray and how we handle that needs to be driven out of our belief that he is a le loving heavenly father who knows things that we don't know. Not like you were saying, Tim, I don't want my prayers or my lack of prayers to be driven out of fear over what he's going to do with it.
I know I am to pray. I don't understand prayer. I've said this all along. I said it for 40ome years as a pastor. I don't understand prayer. But I do know that I'm told to pray.
Yeah.
And I want to pray with a belief that my loving heavenly father knows what's best. and I want to come to him and make my requests. I want my requests to be the desires of my heart, not turn into the demands of my life.
Yeah, that's true.
So, we expect that you are going to wrestle with that same question. And if you are haunted by this, you can thank Tim because he started this. But I'm telling you, I believe that it's been something that God wanted to stir in the three of us. And hopefully, he'll stir it in you. So, we encourage you to pray. we encourage you to as God speaks to your heart to obey and to trust him for the answer whether it's short and coming or long and coming and to know that God loves you fiercely. He's your father. He's your aba father. we're just so grateful for this time that we've had with Tim and so grateful that God puts these things in our hearts to stir us and to make us go into his word even more deeply. So, thank you for being with us and we'll see you next time. Thanks for joining us. To learn more about the Struggling Well podcast, visit tandemspirituality. com.