God’s Predisposition

The working relationship I had with Rev. David Fowler at Cobourg Alliance Church in Ontario, Canada was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Despite the fact that his education includes an earned Doctorate in Education, he always treated me as an equal. The dynamics of that relationship continue to this day.

However, with one exception, I remember very little of the individual sermons that he preached on Sunday mornings and evenings. The exception is a message that David brought on prayer. His desire was to show from scripture that it is the nature of God to want to lavish good things on us; and that in terms of our requests, He is “positively disposed and favorably inclined” to give us what we’re asking for. He used the phrase “positively disposed and favorably inclined” repeatedly in the sermon until it started to sound like a classic ’60s commercial pitch for laundry detergent or dish soap; the exact specifics of the comparison which I can’t remember. By the end though, we knew that — apart from the other factors that must weigh into consideration when you are God after all, with infinite wisdom and knowledge — His desire is say ‘yes’ to us. And I have remembered that for nearly 20 years.

I often think of that sermon. The dynamics of unanswered prayer can be a real stumbling block for many of us. Some are forever paralyzed spiritually by the job they prayed for but didn’t get. The girl they asked God to send them who never came. The medical condition they pleaded for healing for, that never happened.

Tonight though, I started to wonder for the first time what I would do if I were the one presenting that same message today. Is there a way I would say it differently? Rather than answer that directly, I want to leave it with you in the form of a question. How you answer says much about how you understand the nature and ways of God. To do it, since we’re all reading this online, I’ll use a term that almost every computer user understands.

Let’s assume that we tell God we have something we want to ask Him, but for whatever reason, let’s assume He doesn’t know what it is. Here’s the question: When we go to God in prayer, before we even begin, is His default answer “yes” or is His default answer “no”?

That’s how I would approach this subject in a computer-dominated world. Think about it.