{"id":18981,"date":"2015-05-12T08:53:28","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T13:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?p=18981"},"modified":"2015-05-12T08:53:28","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T13:53:28","slug":"how-does-god-answer-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"How Does God Answer Prayer?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Baby-praying\"<\/a>A reader writes to ask if it is wrong to pray to God that his kid does well in his really important baseball game.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t God have better things to worry about than me asking for my boy to do well at the baseball game?\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the answer?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s complicated.<\/p>\n

One the one hand I want to say, \u201cGeesh, you\u2019re a grown up. Is that still your idea of prayer? That you ask God for little stuff like your kid\u2019s ballgame? Grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other hand, unless we become like little children we cannot enter the kingdom, and the great saints say that it is perfectly natural and a good thing to ask God for seemingly little stuff because when we do we are like a little child going to Papa to ask him to help.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, beneath the simple question is a more profound question: We\u2019re supposed to pray to God the Father asking for \u201cour daily bread\u201d. Jesus himself taught us to pray in such a way.<\/p>\n

But how does God answer prayer?<\/p>\n

Atheists and mockers will ask, \u201cCome now. Do you really believe that God is up there in heaven listening to billions of prayers every day and then figuring out how to answer them?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an amusing scene in the film\u00a0Bruce Almighty\u00a0<\/em>where the character (who has been given the power of God) tries to answer all the prayers that come in to him by email.<\/p>\n

The idea that there is a big customer service switchboard in heaven taking all the calls isn\u2019t exactly what we should envision.\u00a0Continue Reading<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Image<\/a> via Bing<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reader writes to ask if it is wrong to pray to God that his kid does well in his really important baseball game. \u201cDoesn\u2019t God have better things to worry about than me asking for my boy to do well at the baseball game?\u201d What\u2019s the answer? It\u2019s complicated. One the one hand I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Does God Answer Prayer?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A reader writes to ask if it is wrong to pray to God that his kid does well in his really important baseball game. "Doesn't God have better things to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Does God Answer Prayer?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A reader writes to ask if it is wrong to pray to God that his kid does well in his really important baseball game. "Doesn't God have better things to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-12T13:53:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/files\/2015\/05\/Baby-praying-300x283.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html\",\"name\":\"How Does God Answer Prayer?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-12T13:53:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-05-12T13:53:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\"},\"description\":\"A reader writes to ask if it is wrong to pray to God that his kid does well in his really important baseball game. \\\"Doesn't God have better things to\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Does God Answer Prayer?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Does God Answer Prayer?","description":"A reader writes to ask if it is wrong to pray to God that his kid does well in his really important baseball game. \"Doesn't God have better things to","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Does God Answer Prayer?","og_description":"A reader writes to ask if it is wrong to pray to God that his kid does well in his really important baseball game. \"Doesn't God have better things to","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html","og_site_name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","article_published_time":"2015-05-12T13:53:28+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/files\/2015\/05\/Baby-praying-300x283.jpg"}],"author":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html","name":"How Does God Answer Prayer?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-05-12T13:53:28+00:00","dateModified":"2015-05-12T13:53:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad"},"description":"A reader writes to ask if it is wrong to pray to God that his kid does well in his really important baseball game. \"Doesn't God have better things to","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/how-does-god-answer-prayer.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Does God Answer Prayer?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","caption":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}