Taking this as a classic illustration of prayer, what might we make of this claim? Mark Tronson asks and considers the following:
Perhaps the prior question is, What is prayer?
What is prayer?
Prayer is certainly communication with the Lord. In this sense, prayer is the means by which we might speak directly to God either corporately as a community, or individually in a personal prayer to God.
In reality, that is not good enough because anyone of us can talk to someone and not pay attention, or look over their shoulder and wave to someone, or talk politely so as to seem attentive.
Therefore true prayer needs to be more than this. Whether corporately said, as in liturgy, or said singularly in private, prayer, is a commitment from the one who says the prayer to the inner heart of God.
If this is a fair definition of true prayer, then prayer takes on a whole fresh look, as it is no longer something said by rote or said so to get it over and done with, rather true prayer is an intimate conversation.
Intimate conversations do not have a public audience (although it might be part of a liturgy). They are personal and private in nature, they are said in a deep seated belief that the Lord hears and moreover, the Lord answers.
Such true prayers can be said, they can be thought in the heart and mind, they can be sung or hummed, the format is not the issue for the true prayer, rather the heart is the central issue of the true prayer.
Which Prayers?
This leads us to the second issue, that of which prayers, might the Lord listen to, and under what circumstances does the Lord respond in ways that are unexpected.
Taking our Dunkirk example, on the one hand there were the prayers of the English that their sons might get across the English Channel and return home safe.
On the other hand, there were the prayers of German mothers and fathers, wives and siblings, grand-parents and friends, that their sons on the front line might likewise be protected and be kept safe. Were their prayers any less passionate in the truth of Christ, as their Saviour and Lord?
This leads us back into the nature of prayer as the hand of the Lord has been shown to intervene into the affairs of men. The Old Testament records over and over again how the Children of Israel cried out unto the Lord and he rescued them – the manna was just one example, the provision of water in the desert was another. The list goes on and on.
How might Prayer work?
But how does prayer work when there are committed Christian people on both sides praying for the welfare of their sons and husbands?
We can say this with confidence, the affairs of men are often governed by those with wicked intentions with the exercise of their free will, and this can determine that the youth of a nation are thrust into situations where death is ever present.
In the current Afghanistan situation there is a conflict that many view as being greater that the freedom of a nation, rather much more is at stake, and young men on both sides are losing their lives, in spite of prayers being offered to one god or another God.
These are difficult questions which everyone in some way ponders as they pray to the Lord in such situations. Perhaps the better question is what God does with those prayers as His response to us are often very different to what is expected.
My wife Delma has been reading a book titled "Prisoners of Hope" of two aid workers in Afghanistan who not only prayed themselves, but had their churches praying, their family praying, their friends praying, their supporters praying, yet they were imprisoned and treated shamefully, yet finally released.
In the end Christians must rely on the integrity of God's Word.
The Scriptures say this Philippians 4 verses 6-7 "Don't be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ."