On Health Concerns and Petitionary Prayer

I’ve been quite concerned about some health related problems lately. I suspected that there was blood in my urine, so I went for a urine test last week. It’s possible that I may have kidney stones again, since I do have a history of it. I’ve also discovered a hard lump on my palm. I have no idea what it is, but reading some medical websites online enlightened me on some of the possibilities. I went to get the urine test results after the missions training, and it turned up negative. There was no blood at all. I asked the doctor about the lump and he said it was nothing serious; that I could just leave it that way. It’s supposed to be some ‘tendon ganglion’ or something. Maybe I’ll get a second opinion another time. I thank God everything’s ok… for now at least! I’ve been praying about it.

I also find that I’ve been praying more often recently; for friends, the mission team, pastors in Sarawak, the CF, for our nation… I guess it’s good. There are still occasions where I feel too lazy to pray. I still miss one or two days of the NECF program occasionally. Or sometimes I just run through them quickly without thinking much or praying much. I still enjoy communing with God in contemplative prayer very much though. In my mind, I still elevate such prayers above petitionary prayers (still trying hard to swallow what Stanley Grenz says about what the Bible says about petitionary prayer!). I’m still working on this discipline of petitionary prayer! I’m also still trying not to use too many ‘still’s in this paragraph! May God give this lazy and selfish pig here the strength to overcome laziness to intercede for himself and others!

Petition [can] be seen as an expression of our realization that we are dependent on God. Petitionary prayer, therefore, is in part the struggle to admit our dependence. It is the struggle to overcome our human blindness and pride. It is the struggle to realize and acknowledge our deep need. ~ Stanley Grenz, Prayer: The Cry for the Kingdom

Many contemporary Christians are no longer convinced that we should picture God in heaven passively waiting for the opportunity to intervene in the world in response to human prayer. Equally difficult to affirm is the seemingly opposite understanding of prayer that presupposes an immutable God whose fixed plan is completely unaffected and undeterred by human petition. ~ Stanley Grenz, Prayer: The Cry for the Kingdom

We do not pray with the idea that we are going to alter what God has decided to perform; we pray in order that we may obtain what he has decided shall come about precisely through our prayers. ~ St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

Ultimately, prayer’s effectiveness is an outworking of God’s own sovereign decision regarding the coming to be of his program in the world. En route to the return of Christ, which will mark God’s final and highest assertion of sovereign rulership over the universe, God has seen fit to involve us in the enactment of the divine program. Of course, God exercises providential care, ordering the actions of humankind to serve the purposes of His plan. But at the same time, God invites human beings to participate in the coming to pass of God’s program. God invites humans to become partners in the divine program by working, by evangelizing, by being Christians in the world – and also by praying. In this way, God gives the kingdom to the world. ~ Stanley Grenz, Prayer: The Cry for the Kingdom