Prayer Duels

…call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers…is the true God! 1 Kings 18:24

Have you ever considered challenging someone of another faith to a prayer duel? Why not? Are you afraid that God is not up to it? Do you or don’t you believe that God answers your prayers? Don’t start blathering about how God is not a candy machine who answers automatically how we expect Him to. Excuses! That’s all that is. Of course, God doesn’t always answer the way we expect Him to. In fact, He rarely does! That’s why He’s Lord of the Universe and we are mere humans. But God has never backed down from a challenge to His sovereignty. He is a jealous God and will not allow other gods before Him. Over and over the saints of the Scriptures called on him, laid out fleece, begged for signs, and He came through every time. Not always how they wanted, but He came through nevertheless.

Perhaps you don’t really want Him to answer like that. If He actually comes through on time and in power, you might have a metaphysical outlook renewal. I enjoy reading Science Fiction and one recurring theme is the question “How would society change if they found out for sure we were not the only intelligence in the universe?” Of course we’re not! Christians have known that for millennia! But knowing a thing intellectually and experiencing it viscerally are two completely different things. If you were to challenge another god to a duel and the Lord God actually came through, you would know for a fact, deep down in the marrow of your bones that He is there and He is not silent!

Or maybe it’s that you don’t want to insult the other person. Perhaps you think it would be too aggressive or demeaning if their god did not answer. Read on in 1 Kings and see how the prophet treated the leaders of the false religion. “About noon time Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or he is relieving himself. Or maybe is away on a trip, or he is asleep and needs to be wakened!” If we truly believed that by believing in this other god the person we were trying to witness to was going to spend an eternity in hell, and we actually cared, we’d move mountains to rescue them. How concerned with their feelings would we be if they were trapped in a burning car? Is there any real difference? Sure – we trust our eyes in the one case but lack faith in the other. We don’t truly believe in hell or in a God so holy that He would follow through with His vow of condemnation for whoever failed to believe in the Son.

Have enough faith to put God to the test. Don’t test Him in the sense that you try to see what you can get away with; you’ll surely end up getting rebuked for that! But He does enjoy showing His power and glory to those who are seeking to glorify Him and lead others to Him. Do you believe that or not?

Pray for the courage to see where God would lead you today.