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<\/p>\nA Relational God is Affected by Our Prayers<\/h3>\n
Throughout scripture, we find examples of believers petitioning God in prayer. God sometimes even invites petitions: \u201cAsk me,\u00a0and I will make the nations\u00a0your inheritance,\u00a0the ends of the earth\u00a0your possession\u201d (Ps. 2:8). Jesus says, \u201cMy Father will give you whatever you ask in my name\u201d (Jn. 16:23). We find examples of petitionary prayer throughout Scripture, and most Christians today at least sometimes ask God to do something.<\/p>\n
If God is impassible and creatures cannot make a difference to what God does, why pray petitionary prayers? Why ask God to do something or help in some way? Petitioning prayer presupposes that our requests affect God, and God may act differently. But if God is unaffected by what we do, it makes no sense to petition God.<\/p>\n
In the name of petitionary prayer, therefore, we should affirm that God is relational.<\/p>\n
Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n We should affirm that God is relational as the basis for God\u2019s empathetic love. We all suffer, and some people suffer deeply. Oppression can be physical, emotional, social, racial, gender-based, sexual, spiritual, political, or something else.<\/p>\n Biblical writers describe God as empathizing with the oppressed. God cares, consoles those in pain, and has compassion. And God calls upon believers to comfort those who suffer. The Apostle Paul describes God\u2019s empathetic love this way: \u201cPraise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,\u00a0the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,\u00a0who comforts us\u00a0in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.\u00a0For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ,\u00a0so also our comfort abounds through Christ\u201d (2 Cor. 1:3-5).<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to feel comforted by those who never experience anything remotely like our suffering. The unaffected can\u2019t relate to what we\u2019re feeling. The nonrelational God never<\/em> suffers and never relates! A nonrelational does not empathize. Consequently, that God cannot comfort others from the perspective of one who has been affected negatively.<\/p>\n By contrast, the relational God is<\/em> empathetic. The relational God of love is a fellow-sufferer who empathetically understands our suffering.[1]<\/a> Oppressed creatures can feel comforted by a relational One who is \u201cthe God of all comfort.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n For the sake of we who are oppressed, therefore, we should affirm that God is relational.<\/p>\n Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n A third reason we should affirm God\u2019s relationality pertains to following biblical commands to act like God. The Apostle Paul writes these powerful words: \u201cImitate God, as beloved children, and live a life of love\u2026\u201d (Eph. 5:1,2a).<\/p>\n Paul also tells his readers to \u201cbe kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you\u201d (Eph. 4:32). Elsewhere in Scripture people are instructed to be holy as God is holy (Pet. 1:14-16) and Jesus says we should imitate God\u2019s compassion by being compassionate (Lk. 6:36). It\u2019s difficult to imagine how we can imitate an nonrelational God in these ways. Compassion, for instance, requires being affected by those in need, because it means to \u201csuffer with.\u201d Is it possible to express non-empathetic and non-emotional compassion? No. In fact, I have no idea what non-empathetic compassion would mean!<\/p>\n But we can <\/em>imitate the compassion of a God who is relational. And with God\u2019s help, we can fulfill the call to imitate God\u2019s love that we find in Scripture.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n In the name of imitating a loving God, therefore, we should affirm that God is relational.<\/p>\n Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n It matters to believe that God is relational. I’ve listed three reasons. Can you think of others?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n notes…<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Alfred North Whitehead famously called God the \u201cfellow sufferer who understands\u201d in Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology<\/em>, Corrected edition by David Ray Griffin and Donald W. Sherburne (New York: Free Press, 1978 [1929]), 351.<\/p>\nA Relational God Suffers with Us<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\n\u00a0A Relational God Can be Imitated<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nConclusion<\/h3>\n