Les Henson
Many of God’s people have a magical view of prayer. Almost all of us have prayed magical prayers at some point in our lives, where we seek to twist the arm of God, metaphorically speaking, to get God to do what we want God to do. Hopefully, with growing maturity, we move beyond this type of prayer that seeks to manipulate God to give us what we want. Another form of this is when we strive to make a deal with God. If you do this for me, then I will do that for you. Fortunately, we cannot manipulate the living God. If we could control God, we would end up in all kinds of trouble with various problems resulting from our prayers. Magical prayer seeks to manipulate God while healthy prayer is supplicatory, making a request to God knowing that in God’s wisdom, God will answer our prays in ways that fit with God’s will for our lives and ultimately for our benefit and wellbeing. Thus, magic is about manipulation, while biblical prayer is supplicatory. Magic ends in the distortion of God’s will while supplication seeks and honours God’s will knowing that our loving heavenly Father does all things well.