Murray Meditations: Cause and Effect

Sometimes, I've wondered why we pray. Isn't God all knowing and everywhere at once? He understands what we need even before we speak it. He  knows our hearts, our thoughts, and our longings better than we know ourselves. I know He is able to do all things.

And yet, we repeatedly see in His Word this command to pray.



Luke 10:2
And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

As it turns out, I am in good company with my pondering. Andrew Murray, in chapter Nine of his book The School of Prayer asks similar questions! Murray puzzles over the fact that  the Lord commands his disciples to pray for laborers in the harvest.

 Murray musings:

• Couldn't He have prayed Himself? 
• And wouldn't one prayer of His accomplish more than a thousand of theirs? 
• And God, the Lord of the harvest, did He not see the need? 

Hmmm...it is a mystery! Why does the God of the universe ask me to pray for laborers in the harvest? I am beginning to approach a baby sized understanding of the power that prayer wields here on earth. A small seed of truth is being planted in my heart as I read the Word, and ask the Spirit to guide me. The small seed is starting the slow process of germination. The baby plant that is hidden in the seed pod is growing and cracking open that pod, sprouting little roots into the soil and searching out food, water and sun.

The answers to such questions will convince us that prayer is a power on which the gathering of the harvest and the coming of the kingdom do in very truth depend. A. Murray

In my limited, finite mind, I start to grasp the fact that our prayers are a cause and effect phenomenon. Prayer is an action that demands a reaction. God knows what I need, but He wants me to turn to Him and ask Him to be my Provider. I get to choose. Do I want His help or do I want to figure it out on my own? Or maybe I would prefer the help of my best friend. She has great advice. How many times do I turn to pop psychology for answers, when I should have prayed to my Abba Father?


This Father, that is also a friend, partners with me as a co-creator in the story of our journey here on earth. Our prayers initiate a supernatural partnering with humanity that brings about God's answers. The all-knowing God waits for us to turn to Him, confess the need and believe in faith that He has the perfect solution. The one and only God of the universe has ALL of the answers, if I will just seek Him in prayer.

The veil that hides the invisible world from us was wonderfully transparent to the holy human soul of Jesus. He had looked long and deep and far into the hidden connection of cause and effect in the spiritual world. A. Murray

So wonderful is the surrender of His work to His Church, so dependent has the Lord made Himself on them as His Body through whom His work can be done, so real is the power the Lord gives His people to exercise in heaven and earth, that the number of laborers and the measure of the harvest actually depends on their prayers. A. Murray

Oh, precious child of God, may you know without a shadow of a doubt that you, too, have this authority to call the powers of heaven to your aid. You have the awesome responsibility of bringing forth laborers in the harvest. Upon you and your faithfulness depends the work of heaven here on earth.