Prayer, Trust and Churchianity

Lately I've been thinking about prayer—about the weird ideas we Churchians have developed about prayer, and about how they fit (or not) with our claim to trust God. I mean, we trust God, right? We know (stop me when I'm wrong) that he is all-powerful, all-knowing, loving, good, and basically smarter than we are. Right? He has a plan, and a place for each of us in that plan. And I have to assume that his plan is bigger and better than anything I could come up with¹. Anyone disagree yet?

So...why do we give him instructions?

We claim to trust God completely, and yet we feel a need to instruct him. To tell him how and when to meet our needs and wants. If you have any Churchians as Facebook friends, you see it all the time: "I had an interview today—pray that I get the job!" "Please pray that my cousin doesn't get deployed to Afghanistan". "Going to look at a new car—pray that we get it!" Hmmm. Well, what if that job isn't the place where God wants you? Do you still want me to ask him to put you there? What if God's plan for the world depends on your cousin being in Afghanistan? Is it OK if I ask for God's will to be done, or would you really rather have me ask him to do your will?

Doesn't make sense, does it?

Right now, I have a situation in my own life². There's this thing that I really want. From where I'm sitting, it looks like a thing that would be great for me and my family in several different ways. It totally seems to fit with God's plan (his plan as understood and interpreted by me, that is). It's a no-brainer: this is obviously a good thing and must be God's will for me. So. What do I do? Ask all my friends to pray that this thing happens like I want it to? Beg God endlessly myself? "Please God please God please God make this good thing happen"? In my past life as a Churchian, that's exactly what I would have done.

But...

Do I trust God, or not? Do I believe that he has a plan, and a place for me in that plan? Well, yes. I do. If this super great thing is actually a super great part of his super great plan, do I need to tell him to make it happen? Kind of ridiculous, isn't it? Me giving God instructions, like maybe he forgot what he was supposed to do next?

So then, what? Don't pray?

As a recovering Churchian, I'm tempted to fall back to my default setting of praying for my will instead of God's. But here's how I've been reminding myself to pray, about my current situation as well as other things that I want/need/worry about: "God, thank you that your plan is better than my plan. I give this situation to you. Please carry out your plan, and please make my will match up with yours."

Amen

1. His plan is better than mine. That doesn't always mean that I'll like it better, especially in the short term.
2. Nothing big, bad, or scary, I promise.