Lately I’ve been considering the nature of prayer. What does it actually mean “to pray”? How does it work? How is prayer different from meditation? How is prayer different for other people? What happens when God doesn’t answer? etc., etc., etc. A lot of stuff to chew on. In light of that I wanted to do a few posts related to prayer.
To get us rolling, I’m sharing a question from a friend’s post:
“Christians aren’t very good at questioning God. If we are in a covenant relationship with him, then shouldn’t we have a argument with him once and a while?”- a paraphrased professor
Agree or disagree?
I think the underlying question here is this: should Christians argue with God? Isn’t it sinful to question or resist God? Isn’t arguing a kind of rebellion or disobedience?
I’m going to go ahead and lay it out there: I think that we should argue with God.
An argument is nothing less (but obviously more) than a conversation. And if we think that God meaningfully communicates with people and that they can respond in some meaningful way back, then we can have an argument with God. This establishes some kind of relationship; and, like all relationships, they are full of conflict.
Some people are scared to argue with God. They understand conflict as a bad thing to be avoided at all times. Christians should not argue with God because arguing is an act of rebellion. In short: to argue is to sin.
Not so.
In and of itself, conflict is not a bad thing. I have talked a little bit on here before about conflict among Christians. Conflict is inevitable whenever there are two people in relationship. Now arguments can be negative, but ideally conflict is an opportunity to learn and grow.
In fact many of the biblical characters argued with God. Both Abraham and Moses argued with God. Jacob wrestled with him. Job questioned God’s motives. Gideon tested God. David complained and lamented. Thomas doubted the resurrection, and Peter got in Jesus’ face. And as passionate as Paul was, he did his fair share of arguing too.
The Psalmist is a clear case in point. If anyone argued with God, it was the Psalmist. Something like 1/3 of the Psalms are laments (with many others scattered throughout the Bible). A biblical lament is a special kind of complaint to God. They concern internal and external human problems, matters of the community and of the individual. They talk about things related to physical health, national security, death, tragic loss, hunger: basically everything.
The Psalmist brought these grievances before God. And all the problems of life were brought up in the context of worship!
An important thing to note about the laments is that they were not flippant or haphazard. They were specific and direct. They also had another important element: they all end in a cry or blessing of praise. The Psalmist, no matter how distraught, always expressed humble devotion to God.
To argue with God is not a sin. Actually, there is a long biblical tradition that includes complaining, arguing, yelling, and even cursing. Handling our heart in these situations is key.
Because God communicates with humanity, I think we should communicate with him, disagree with him, challenge him, question him, wrestle with him–even if that occasionally takes the form of an argument.
When was the last time you argued with God? What was it about?
More of Arguing with God to come soon!
Biblioblogos 