Confrontational prayers

By John Stallings

…….My God My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Mark 15:34

……..The kingdom of heaven suffers violence & the violent take it by force.Matt.11:12


Confronting God? Arguing with God? I have been wrestling with this all week. We have been taught that prayer is solemn & respectful haven’t we? We fold our hands, & close our eyes & think good thoughts about God & say pretty words to Him. Sad to say we’ve too often been told that prayer is “getting stuff from God” when in reality prayer is “getting in touch with God.”

I went to see a movie a few years ago called “The Apostle.” Robert Duvall plays the part of Sonny, a ragged, hot-tempered, womanizing evangelist. Mostly because of his arrogance Sonny loses his church & his wife. His wife is leaving him for his youth pastor. Mercy! Angry & broken Sonny moves back into his mother’s house where he shouts, paces & hollers to God from an upstairs window.

Somebody, I say somebody has taken my wife. They stole my church….I don’t mean to yell at you but I’m mad at you. I can’t take it. Give me a sign Lord. Blow this pain out of me. Lord, Jehovah, if you won’t give me back my wife, give me peace. Give it to me---give it to me….give it to me. Give me peace. I’m confused. I’m mad at you. I love you Lord but I’m mad at you. I’ve always called you Jesus & you’ve always called me Sonny—what should I do?”

His prayer is so loud that a neighbor calls Sonny’s mother to complain about the noise. “That’s my son” she explains. “Ever since he was a little- bitty boy sometimes he talks to the Lord & sometimes he yells at the Lord. And tonight he happens to be yelling at Him.”

Let’s be frank; that sounds a little odd to us doesn’t it? It sounds irreverent & entirely inappropriate. Well, maybe not. There is such a thing as confrontational prayer. This kind of prayer occurs when I bring my questions, doubts, disagreements & even my complaints directly to God. Sometime its prayer spoken out of tortured complaint, out of suffering or outrageous anger in the absence of justice.

You may say “I would never talk to God in anything less than soft respectful tones. Who am I to Haul God to court?” Excellent points. The prayer I’m talking about will revolutionize your prayer life as well as your relationship with God. You see, in prayer God wants us to engage Him. It’s almost as if he’s saying “Talk to me, engage me, respond to me. Anything is better than the silent treatment & the cold shoulder. Argue, rant, rave, stew, disagree, but do something. Or worse, don’t come to me with pious words that are empty & fake.”

Prayer is a personal & passionate conversation with God. It’s an exercise that involves both of you—the real you—not the pretend you, the false you.

John