[bit.listserv.christia] Prayer -- QB

BWA6067@TAMAGEN (02/13/90)

       Real life question about prayer and God's will.

       Two NFL football players are about to square off in the Super
       Bowl.  Both pray to God, asking Him for the strength to win
       the game.

       One team wins, of course.  The player on that team thanks God
       for answering his prayer in the affirmative.  The other is
       disappointed, thinking that God answered his prayer in the
       negative.

       Is this a fair conclusion, or did God find the request
       frivolous and allow the outcome to follow without His
       intervention?

                                queue ball

PJS895S@SMSVMA (Pat Shepard) (02/13/90)

Whether God answered the prayers of those two football players depends mainly
on _why_ they prayed that they could win.  If the reason they prayed to win was
so that they would be famous, or rich, or whatever, then I think God would not
be pleased with their prayer and wouldn't help them.  If (somehow) they prayed
to win because they felt somehow it would glorify God, then God would let them
win _if_ it did indeed do so.  If both prayed to win because it would glorify
God if they did, and (oddly enough) it _would_ glorify God in both cases, then
I don't see that God would need to do anything...He'd be glorified anyhow.
(I think, by the way, it'd be a rare case indeed where praying to win a
football game showed an honest desire to glorify God)
                                                         In His Love,
                                                                Pat

LHARANGO@OWUCOMCN (Lauren Arango) (02/13/90)

In response to Queue Ball's question about the two football teams....

I would say that when we pray, we should pray to stay in God's will, and
that His will be done.  If one team wins and the other loses, that is
God's will.  It may be that the losing team will gain something in the
long run and so will also be a "winner", although the players didn't
actually win the game.  Make sense?

God has in the past answered my prayers in very unexpected ways!  At
the moment, it seems to me that He has answered them negatively or
ignored them.  It is only later, with hindsight, that things fit together
and I realize that the answer He gave me wasn't the answer I asked for....
but in virtually every case, God's answer was *better*.

He knows what's best for me, and I trust Him.  He also knows what's best
for both winning and losing football teams, I guess. :-)

                                God's peace,
                                Lauren