Prayer Ponderings - Inspired by Brandon

Last Sunday I posted about prayer, and Brandon (my friend from high school...he and his wife are expecting their first baby in a couple of weeks, and I'm so excited for them!) responded with some good questions. I spent a few minutes this morning responding to him down in the original post, only to have Blogger eat my response. ICK.

So I thought I would pose his questions up here - and see if anyone else has thoughts on these ponderments (a Bekah word) too.

Do our prayers alter God's involvement or direction in the future? If so, does this lend itself to an idea that God has a somewhat limited knowledge of the future (still by His choice)? If not, is prayer more about aligning ourself with the heart of God ... rather than about what we pray about? How is our prayer-life impacted by our internalized view of our parents? Is prayer bigger than our concept (kneeling, eyes-closed) and better captured by a lifestyle?

My response was centered around the first two questions/thoughts. Let me start by saying I am NOT a theologian and do not claim to be. My Dad corners the market on theology in our family, and I am perfectly happy to let him have it. I'm not smart enough to argue the finer points...and that is fine.

But my thought is that prayer can alter God's involvement or direction in the future. I say that because the Bible talks about Abraham's pleas to God to spare Sodom and Gommorah - and after several pieces of conversation between God and Abraham, God was willing to spare the righteous in the city. And just this week I was reading in Isaiah about the life of Hezekiah. God told him to put his house in order because he was soon to die, and he begged God for more time. God heard his cries and saw his tears and granted him another fifteen years of life. I believe that God's infinite knowledge and wisdom allowed him to know that all of that was going to happen (this is where theology kicks in and Bekah kicks out) but the core of me trusts that God is so moved by compassion for His children that He is sometimes willing to change His original course.

That's just my quick answer...with more time, I could come up with more opinion, I'm sure. The rest of it, I'm going to have to think about. But if you have any thoughts of your own - pitch them in!