Big and Small Prayers

It is always interesting to argue with an ancient author. While it may seem that the advantage lies with the reader, who is after all alive while the author is not and can thus not respond, the very fact that the author's work has survived gives immense weight to his argument. I certainly do not consider myself to be the intellectual equal of a classic author, yet I have confidence that sometimes I am right and he is wrong.

Origen seems to be all over the place when it comes to the kinds of prayer we are to make. He emphasizes that we are to ask God for the big things, which in his estimation are those that are spiritual, and not worry God with the small things, which he considers most physical requests to be.  He then discusses how when we ask for an receive the more important things we will also receive the lesser. There seems to be a tension within Origen as to how we approach God without being focused on our worldly needs.

Origen disparages the physical, preferring the spiritual. In order to fit requests like "Give us today our needful bread" into what he sees as a spiritual context, he takes allegorical liberties in his interpretation. In doing so, he often teaches a significant spiritual truth, but he also misses the main point. (Eventually, this allergorical interpretation and focus on the spiritual while downplaying the physical would get him into trouble!)

However, I think there is an important point made by Origen's teaching on prayer. I don't believe we have to find a "spiritual meaning" behind every request or teaching on prayer in the Bible; it is clear that we are to pray for everything. Where Origen has it right is that we should not allow a focus on our temporal needs to completely over shadow the spiritual needs in our lives. We should pray for our daily bread, healing, and other earthly concerns, but we should also be praying "Your kingdom come" and "Deliver us from the evil one."

If we balanced our prayer perspectives, we wouldn't fall into the "health and wealth gospel" trap of seeing God as there to provide everything we want. Prayer is not only about us and our needs; it is about God and our relationship with Him. As a loving Father, He wants to meet our needs (although there is no Biblical warrant for asking Him to meet our "wants"), but He also wants us to draw closer in a loving relationship that will last for eternity.

So while I think Origen has gone too far in his quest to make prayer purely about spiritual concerns, I think there is a salutary warning for us not to go the other way and make our prayers purely about our temporal concerns.