When we say 'don't bother praying for rain, because God doesn't work like that', we not only limit our God to a cosy little box, but we lose hope, and I think that we are losing hope. We don't rebuke the laments of the Old Testament, the pleas of the Psalmist, we don't criticise Jesus for pleading with God in Gethsemane to have 'this cup taken from me', in fact we accept and 'celebrate' these in our worship.
If praying for rain is going to bring comfort to those who are facing the loss of their livelihood, their home, the land that they and their ancestors have worked for many decades, to those who this drought and past droughts have cost the lives of family members and torn families apart and we refuse to let them be heard, we are doing them great injustice and are not being Christ to them, for does Paul say: "Cast only theologically correct questions on God, because God hasn't got the time or energy to deal with excess wishes like rain" or does he say "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you" 1Peter 5:7 (NRSV)? Praying for rain in a time of drought is a pastoral issue, and when we lose hope pastorally, we might as well give up. Later Wesley ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
