If/Then prayer

[mike_sieber]

Not sure if this goes here, but…

I know of someone who uses an if/then formula for prayer. Basically they pray to know God’s will by asking Him if A happens, then I know it’s your will, or isn’t. An example would be “Lord, I want to change careers. If I see a rainbow today I’ll know that you want me to, and if not, then I won’t.”

This doesn’t seem like a very good way to pray, but they swear it works for them.

How can I tell them that things that seem like answers may just be coincidence and that God doesn’t really work this way?

Any advice?

 

[PhilotheaZ]

On asking for signs, from the book Seeking Spiritual Direction by Rev. Thomas Dubay, S.M.:

“I do not recommend it, at least not ordinarily. It is true that the apostles drew lots after prayer to select Matthias as Judas’ replacement (Acts 1:26), but God can will something for the apostles that he does not will for the rest of us. If one has a guide [spiritual director], I think God would prefer consultation to searching for a special sign. When some of the scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign, his answer was not encouraging: “It is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign” (Mt 12:38–39). … This is not to say that God does not give signs. It is to say that we should usually exercise caution in actively seeking them. God is not a puppet on a string.”

 

[mike_sieber]

Great reply. Thanks, that helps.

 

[water]

I heard a story and don’t know the details much. This young man who was discerning his priesthood, and he asked God to give him a sigh that if God didn’t want him to be a priest, then make the candle cracked - the candle which he would hold for the day he was about to get ordained.

When the day comes, his candle cracked, and he said that God answered him, then he quit his vocation.

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

I think it’s a very bad idea ​

It has the disadvantage of being (sorry to say this ) superstitious - it’s superstitious because it is a form of imposing our ideas on God (which is quite bad enough); and it does this by having us choose how God is to act towards us. He may wish to do something different, something our limited minds cannot imagine - if we try to tell Him how to act, we are shrinking God down to our own limits. And that is to turn Him into an idol.

IOW, it limits His freedom - which is presumably why that quotation points that we must not treat God as “a puppet on a string”. Because we, are subject to Him - not He, to us. If He imposes a limit on Himself - as in the Incarnation - that is something else: what we can never do, is take the initiative in saying how He is to act - it is always He Who acts first.