The prayer paradox.

BY KIRSTIE SKOGERBOE

Buenas tardes, Señora!” Josué called to a woman in her house. My husband and I were standing with him in the dirt alley of a low-income neighborhood in San José, Costa Rica. We were accompanying the recently retired director of the non-profit El Niño y La Bola (Boy with a Ball) on a prayer caminata to check in on moms and their kids. Josué and the woman exchanged updates on how they were doing; he empathized with her tiredness and asked about her children. She told him that her son, Ezekiel, was sick. This was particularly bad news because Ezekiel had planned to attend the organization’s Christmas party the next day. Now, he lay disconsolately on the couch with a fever.

Josué asked if we could come in to pray for him. I appreciated how seriously Josué took a mom’s concern and a boy’s desire, but I was surprised by the earnestness of his prayer. He prayed for Ezekiel as though his sickness really were a result of the Fall, and as though there were no question whether God saw and cared for this boy. In his prayer, Josué reminded God that Jesus told his followers that they’d heal people of illness in his name, as recorded in Mark’s Gospel. He commended the boy to God’s care, and we said goodbye.

As we walked away, Josué explained why he prayed the way he did. “It is not my responsibility whether God chooses to heal this child,” he said. “But it is my responsibility to ask for healing.”

Josué’s words have stayed in my heart because of how often I have wondered how to pray. God, our Father, loves to give good gifts, but he doesn’t always give us what we ask for. When I was a child, I thought that “Thy will be done” was the most mature prayer. But at the same time, “You do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2). Should I pray boldly or submissively? Which does he want from me?

The answer that Scripture gives us is not hidden. In fact, I can see it now in one of my favorite passages. Hebrews 4:15–16 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” What kind of people are we? Weak, tempted, and in need. Those are three good reasons to submit ourselves to our Lord and his will. But what kind of Lord do we have? A sympathetic one, who is also “beset with weakness” (Hebrews 5:2), who knows what it is like to be tempted, and who invites us to approach his throne with confidence.

We do not need to be afraid of God’s “no.” He tells us to approach him boldly, with all his promises in hand. Ask for good gifts, and rejoice when they are given. If God, in his wisdom, says “no,” remember that Jesus heard the same answer in the garden, and it led to our salvation.

Skogerboe, the digital communications coordinator for the AFLC, lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.