When Christians Consult the World-Wide-Web as Psychic
I once wrote in my journal, “God answered a prayer that I probably should have been praying.” Have you ever had this happen? Where a situation “worked out” or “a coincidence” made your impending problem moot? If you’re anything like me, you’ve experienced worry, trial, uncertainty, or a crossroads in decision-making and have forgotten to pray about it. It’s not that you don’t think prayer is real or don’t trust God, but in your independence, you search out other means to solve your dilemma.
My Bible reading plan recently had me in 1 Chronicles. I’m less familiar with these chapters and can feel a little lost in the portions that describe names and numbers at length. I didn’t expect to be moved, but this verse stopped me in my tracks: “So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the LORD in that he did not keep the command of the LORD, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance” (1 Chron. 10:13).
I’ve never graced the beaded, purple fabric doorway of a woman donning a headdress and crystal ball, but I have attempted to see a medium, and my guess is you have too. My psychic has taken the form of late-night internet searches, book purchasing, talking to trusted mentors ad nauseam, and my all-time favorite: worrying and predicting in my own mind. It’s a strategy I put hope in, devoid of drawing from the deep well God gives me in himself.
To be clear, God uses practical means to guide us; Proverbs says there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors (Prov. 11:14). We must experience our lives in a community of pastors, authors, friends, and mentors. We are meant to be encouraged in the faith and glean wisdom from those farther ahead of us in life. I am not saying we should not pursue these faithful means of discernment.
What I am saying is that prayer is a powerful part of the equation, and I have often forgotten this piece, and my guess is maybe you have too. We behold lesser wisdoms when we don’t pray rather than beholding our Wonderful Counselor.
When we don’t pray, we believe the lie that we can fix our problems on our own and must only tap God for the “big” problems. There was a season in my life when I prayed regularly and often. My journal was full of petitions, thankfulness, grief, and awe. My time of suffering was gut-wrenching and out of my control, so my dependence on God was clear. In the Lord’s mercy, I am no longer in a season of devastating need, and to my shame, I forget to pray. I forget who I am and think I can handle normal problems with my own strength. When we do this, we don’t understand how finite we are. If not for Christ holding all things together, we wouldn’t wake up with breath in our lungs each morning. There is no such thing as a human life devoid of dependence on God.
We believe earthly means of finding answers are superior to the Holy Spirit. Have I googled it more than I have prayed about it? Have I hung on every word from a trusted mentor for the crystal-ball answer rather than sitting quietly with the Lord, asking for wisdom from the Holy Spirit? Is my search for discernment obsessive and frantic? I have fallen into these pitfalls more times than I can count. Faced with a big decision, I recently shared with my parents, “I guess this is my next big thing to obsess about.”
God’s grace is teaching me there is a better way. We don’t have to be fearful of the consequences of our prayerful decision-making. God has been faithful to me in a myriad of ways. I have seen him work in impossible situations in my life. I have seen him sustain me and protect me when my worst-case scenario was realized. And above all that, his faithfulness exceeds earthly situations through the cross. There is nothing on this earth that the believer needs to fear. So we can read books and glean wisdom, but with the knowledge and backing of the Holy Spirit in our corner. We can trust where God might be leading us, even if we don’t have every detail and contingency plan determined. We can actually believe and be confident we have the Holy Spirit living inside us.
We believe prayer is primarily necessary when we are asking God for what we need. Scripture teaches us there are other forms of prayer in addition to supplication.
Timothy Keller opens his book on prayer with this thought: “In Psalm 27:4, David says there is one primary thing he asks of the Lord in prayer—‘to gaze on the beauty of the Lord.’ While David did in fact pray for other things, he means at the very least that nothing is better than to know the presence of God.” Keller continues, “A rich, vibrant, consoling, hard-won prayer life is the one good that makes it possible to receive all other kinds of goods rightly and beneficially. He [The Apostle Paul] does not see prayer as merely a way to get things from God but as a way to get more of God himself.”
If our prayer life is simply about getting what we want from God, we are missing out on the richness of aligning our hearts with the kingdom. Experiencing God’s presence, peace, comfort, and joy won’t come out of a Santa-letter-style prayer or an afterthought. In the moments that I am experiencing a high level of anxiety, I am forgetting to run to the well that promises to comfort me in anguish.
I have failed in this category more times than I can count. I’m tempted to blame the age of my existence. Surely if I didn’t have the internet or social media, I’d have less to worry about. It seems, though, that this is an idol that plagues all of humanity. Even Jesus’s closest followers, the disciples, often forgot to pray. They fell asleep in the garden of Gethsemane on the night of Jesus’s arrest and came up with their own plans instead of following the Lord’s leading.
We can be encouraged; the heart of Christ is kind, gracious, and gentle. He is praying for us in the midst of our failure.
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:20–23)
May we be the type of Christian who sees our need for God in every step and thanks him without ceasing for sustaining us.
Kasey Moffett is a wife and mom of two sons. She lives in her home state of New York. She feels most comfortable during the Northeast autumn months and serves Grace Road Church as their Administrative Director. She has experienced the grief of divorce. You can find her writing at Fathom Mag, For the Church, She Reads Truth, and her own site at kaseyamoffett.com.