When prayer gets deadly

I don't think anything sums up the point I'm making in this article more than the phrase "I asked God, she's ok with it". This is the most extreme example of a prayer said in bad faith, yet I've seen it on picket signs.

Let me ask you a question: How much do you think I need to pray before I figure out if it's ok to steal a car? Any sane person should say none. If you don't know God, He's still written His law on your heart, so you instinctively know stealing is wrong. If you do believe in God, you have that instinct, along with prophetic word to confirm it. The Bible plainly declares that stealing is wrong. Therefore, I don't need to pray to know if stealing is ok. I know it isn't.

But what if I pray, and suddenly, I start warming up to the idea? That's a very nice car. I like the color, it has a cool shape, the interior is aesthetically pleasing, and it looks so comfortable. I guess God doesn't really mind if I steal this car. I could even find some sort of silly justification for it. Maybe I think the owner doesn't deserve the car. He's a real jerk. Maybe he already has two cars, and I have none. He should share the wealth, right? And maybe I can use it to get to my job faster. Or why don't I take a few rides in it before I sell it to make money for charity?

No matter how hard I try to justify stealing that car, I imagine most of my readers think I'm a crackpot. The ones who don't? Yeah, they're crackpots. No amount of prayer should be able to justify stealing, even if I end up thinking I got "yes" as an answer to my prayer.

The Bible tells us quite clearly that prayer needs to be properly motivated. James 4:3, for example, says "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures." When you pray, your motives matter. If you pray in bad faith, you're not getting an answer. If you pray wanting to justify sin, God's going to have only one answer for you: "Have you not read...?"

"Have you not read" is one of Jesus' more memorable sayings. People would often play dumb with Him, or try to catch Him out, and He wouldn't give them His own answer, He'd point them to Scripture. "Have you not read?" It's such a simple question. Have you not read the part where it says "you shall not steal"? Well there's your answer, don't steal that car. Praying is redundant in light of the Scriptures. If you're going to pray at all, it would be best to earnestly pray "Lord, please help me find what your word says about this", and then start reading. And even better, we have been blessed with quick and easy access to significant numbers of Christian websites that have already condensed all the Biblical information on any given topic into a helpful article. Just pull out your phone or your laptop and in mere seconds, you will know every Bible verse that addresses the topic you're interested in.

Yet, there are still people who "pray" for an answer to certain questions, not because they don't know the answer, but because they want a different one. The most dangerous example that springs to mind is Mormons. When missionaries approach a potential convert, they ask them to "pray to know that the Book of Mormon is true". Not even if. Specifically that it is true. The reason this is so dangerous is because we're not just dealing with a specific sin we want to commit/continue. This is so dangerous because there are greater spiritual forces at play. When you pray about a specific sin, all that's really going to happen is God will be aloof. Or, by His grace, He will fight you and win. I speak from experience in the case of the latter. But when you pray to the god of Mormonism, the god of Mormonism will answer.

1 Corinthians 10:20 tells us that idols are actually demons, and 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us that Satan is "the god of this age". The gods of false religions, while they are certainly not actual Gods, are nevertheless conscious beings with great deceptive power. And praying to know if (and especially that) their religion is true is a show of faith. And they are more than capable of returning that faith.

And so we see that the statement in the header image, while initially shocking, is in fact 100% true. When we do not listen to God's replies, there is no point in asking Him for one. He likely won't give it, and so we are in the unfortunate position of a more wicked entity being capable of answering instead, be it ourselves, or a demon. Don't fall into this trap. Pray with sincere motives, study with a sober mind, and come in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, who bled and died to redeem all who believe.