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In the last week, newspapers have spent a great deal of ink covering church prayer services. For this we Christians should be grateful. It's good for journalists and the larger community to see how essential the local church is to so many people.

The only problem is that nearly every journalist seems to be clueless about what exactly is going on in these services. A sampling of recent headlines:

• "Seeking Solace in Time of Fear: Religious Leaders Tread Carefully To Soothe Worried Worshipers"
  
  
• "Residents attended church services throughout the San Gabriel Valley this weekend as a means of seeking comfort in troubled times"
  
  
• "Finding comfort in prayer and reflection"

And on it goes in papers big and small, from The Washington Post to The Fresno Bee. Today's issue of The Winchester (Va.) Star reports that "Ideally, [spiritual leaders] want to help quiet internal battles between war and peace, and between faith and politics."

Let me be fair: journalists are partly right. Prayer does, in fact, bring comfort to the fearful and anxious. But why are these journalists universally reporting that the whole scope of these prayer services is to bring comfort? Are the pastors telling them this? Are parishioners? Why are so many assuming that the primary purpose of prayer is to make us comfortable? Is anyone in these churches telling these journalists that they are missing the biggest story going on in these prayer meetings—that prayer actually changes things?

It seems that one saying of Christian philosopher Søren Kierkegaard has become the lens through which journalists look at prayer. Kierkegaard once wrote, "Prayer does not change God but changes him who prays." Here's the train of logic I think Kierkegaard was following: God knows everything that's going to happen ahead of time. God has a perfect will. No puny human being is going to get the infinitely wise God to change his mind and do something stupid. Nor is God going to change the future he has mapped out because some poor Harry in Bismarck, North Dakota, needs some help. The implication is that Harry needs change. He needs to become less anxious, selfish, and trustful of God's providence, and that's what prayer can do for him.

Indeed, we pathetic creatures need a great deal of changing. And sometimes the answer to prayer is for us to suck it up or go out and do something instead of whining to God.

But here's another take from another "philosopher": "You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask him" (Matt. 7:9-11). Jesus assumes that prayer doesn't just change us; it also makes a difference in what God does.

But how does this square with the traditional Christian teaching that God is "immutable," that he is unchanging? Or that he is providentially in control of history? Or that he is all wise? It's not as if God, after hearing our prayers, says, "Gosh, I never thought of that. Good idea. I'll get right to it."

To be sure, we are trafficking in mystery at this point, but a simple analogy may help.

About some matters, God simply will not change his mind, no matter how hard we pray. So don't even bother with "God, help me embezzle funds from my company today." It ain't going to happen.

Then there are those matters that are going to happen whether we pray for them or not. Thus it is pointless to pray, "Lord, please make the sun rise tomorrow morning" (though it's not pointless to praise God for the sunrise).

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March (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47