At the seminary where I teach, some of my students resist the idea that God’s mind can be changed. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Perhaps human language is unable to adequately describe what is going on. Yet in Jesus I see a God who wants to be in a mutual and reciprocal relationship with people. Yes: God is God, and we are not. It is not a relationship of equals. But neither is it one-sided. God desires us to come and speak to God. And sometimes, God hears what people say and pray, and relents from what God had intended. In the Bible, when God hears a prayer and relents, the change is always from judgment to mercy. It never goes the other way. That is good news indeed.
This message is excerpted from “Prayer changes things” by Ann L. Fritschel from the July/August 2018 Gather magazine.
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