Why I don’t like the phrase “Prayer doesn’t change God, it changes us” – Praying in the Spirit, Preview

Have you ever heard that phrase, “Prayer doesn’t change God, it changes us”? Frankly, I don’t like that quote.  Well, to be precise, I don’t think the quote is nuanced enough.

The quote is attributed to Danish Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), whose work I generally appreciate, that is, when I understand it, which is not always the case.  Kierkegaard wrote, “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”

To that, I say both true and false.  It seems to me that prayer may or may not change us, and it may or may not change God.  I suspect most people agree that prayer may or may not change us, depending on our heart posture when we pray.  If we are humble and teachable, then perhaps our time of prayer might shape us.   What I wonder, however, is what most people think about my claim above that prayer may or may not change God.

Kierkegaard said “the function of prayer is not to influence God.”  I disagree.  I think many of us, when we pray, are doing precisely the opposite of what Kierkegaard states.  When we pray, we are trying to influence God.  We want God to give us what we want.  That’s why we’re praying in the first place.  That’s not always why we’re praying, but it is often why we’re praying.  We call that kind of prayer, supplication.  In supplication, we are asking God to give us something.  We want to influence God, and we believe he can be influenced.

I don’t know enough about Kierkegaard to surmise why he felt that the purpose of prayer was not to influence God.  Maybe he had a deterministic streak in him, which means that he believed that the future is determined, God knows what the future will be, so it is irrational to pray supplicational prayers in which we attempt to influence God in any way. In other words, some people believe it is impossible for prayer to change anything, because everything is already determined.  But maybe Kierkegaard was trying to help Christians think about their own hearts and minds, and not view God as some kind of divine Santa Claus who we send our wish lists to.  If so, I would agree that.

I conclude that the phrase “prayer doesn’t change God, it changes us,” is not nuanced enough for me because I see a very different description of God and of prayer in the Bible.  That description of God and of prayer is what we are going to study this week in the final sermon in the Armor of God series.  In Ephesians 6:18-20, Paul teaches about prayer, and how vital prayer is to spiritual warfare.  Prayer matters. But how?  We’ll talk about it next week.

Photo by Jack Sharp on Unsplash