What use is God if he can’t actually do anything for us?
Part 3
I still want to claim that just maybe God can change things in the world, and that there’s certainly no harm in praying for him to do so. However, this may just be me refusing to let go of old habits and to accept the conclusions of my own thinking. You could say that, when you’ve tried all possible human agency, there is no harm in praying for a miracle. It’s not going to work because we’ve accepted that God doesn’t do miracles, but as disaster is looming your way anyway, it’s not making things any worse, and may give an important and valid inner strength that: “all we can do now is consign our situation to the Lord”. I accept that there can be harm in saying prayers like this if you use the prayer instead of doing everything that human agency can to make a situation better. If my loved one is gravely sick, I take her to the doctor and hope that medical expertise will be sufficient to save her life. I still pray – that in her inner life and my inner life – we will find strength and peace and guidance, but I expect it to be medical skill that will save her. If she is saved, I still give thanks to God, and if she is not, I ask God to comfort us. This does not detract from me also being deeply grateful to the medical staff who actually did the work of healing her.
Spiritual Devotion 