A few days ago, a post by a Facebook friend caught my eye
and stuck in my mind for hours (that’s rare for me for a Facebook post!). This
lady was asking for prayer for a baby who is facing a heartbreaking illness. It
is good to invite people to pray, and her compassion was obvious.
What stuck in my mind, however, was the claim that her
post made about God and his promises concerning prayer. I don’t know if this
lady wrote these words or if she was simply sharing them from someone else’s
post, but here’s what it said:
“The power of prayer. God says where ever there is three
or more gathered in his name in complete harmony he will give them whatever
they ask for. So please let’s all be in complete harmony and say this prayer…”
What followed was a suggested prayer that we could all pray for this baby.
This claim about God grieved me deeply and stuck in my
mind for hours. Why such a strong reaction, you ask? Because the truth is this:
If God made
that promise, then he is utterly untrustworthy.
How did I reach that conclusion? Just think about what
your own experience has taught you. How many times have you and a group of
family or friends all made the same specific prayer request to God, only to see
it go unfulfilled? I would suspect we have all lived through that experience a
number of times.
Do you see the dilemma that our experience raises in
light of that claim? If God did in fact make such a promise about prayer, then
he has failed to deliver on it repeatedly. If any other person you know
repeatedly fails to deliver on a promise, don’t you eventually conclude that he
is not trustworthy? Logically, we are backed into a corner on this one – if God
made that promise about prayer, we would be foolish to trust him, because he
has failed to deliver on it time and time again.
So we have a crucial question to consider – did God in
fact promise that “wherever there is three or more gathered in his name in
complete harmony he will give them whatever they ask for?”
This language of “three or more gathered” is found in
Matthew 18:15-20. Here is that whole passage, so you can get the context of the
whole train of thought:
"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him
his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained
your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with
you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three
witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he
refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax
collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I
say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be
done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in
my name, there am I among them."
A couple of questions at this point will bring us some much-needed
clarity regarding any promise that God is making in these verses. First of all,
why are the two or three gathered in this passage? We quickly discover that
they are not gathered for any general purposes regarding prayer, but rather for
a very specific purpose – to help resolve a dispute that has arisen within the
church body. Initially, they are gathered in verse 16 to provide evidence that
the claims of the offended brother are indeed true. Then, they are (presumably)
gathered with the rest of the church in verse 17 as the church makes a
pronouncement regarding the unrepentant brother’s status within the church body
(the meaning of “let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector”).
Second, what would the two or three be asking about in this
context (their asking is mentioned in verse 19)? Here, we have to trace the
line of thinking from verse 17 forward. At the end of verse 17, an action is
prescribed as the end result of church discipline for an unrepentant brother –
let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. This statement would refer
to the removal of the brother’s privileges and responsibilities within the
church body (it certainly does NOT mean anything like “act mean and nasty
toward him”).
This act is then referred to in verse 18 as “binding” and
“loosing.” Notice then that in verse 19, Jesus begins by saying “again I say to
you.” The word “again” would indicate that Jesus is about to refer back to the
action at the end of verse 17 in different language than what he used in verse
18. So then, what would the two or three be asking about in verse 19? The most
natural answer, based on the context, is that they would be asking God to
approve and confirm their decision to remove the unrepentant brother’s
privileges and responsibilities within the church body.
Only now can we properly understand the statements “it
will be done for them by my father in heaven” and “for where two or three are
gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Jesus is promising that if we take
the proper care and caution in overseeing the discipline of the church, God
will approve and confirm the decisions that are made through this process.
There is no general promise made here about any and all
prayers that may ever be spoken. It’s very important that we don’t conclude
that God is making such a promise here. Why is it so important? Among several
reasons, this one stands out:
People
sometimes lose their faith when they expect God to grant a request and he doesn’t.
This whole discussion thus becomes very relevant very
quickly. We MUST make sure that the expectations we have for God are based on
what he himself has said in the Bible and not simply on popular sentimentality.
Otherwise, we may end up disappointed with God for no legitimate reason, but
simply because we have embraced a misunderstanding about him. That is a very
sad state of affairs, indeed.
We must be very careful when we start saying “God
promised us this…” or “God promised us that…” We do not want to put God on the
hook for things he did not actually say! There certainly is power in prayer.
May I be the last person to ever discourage people from praying! But we don’t
want to find ourselves in a crisis of faith that could’ve been avoided by
simply spotting an unfortunate misunderstanding.
