To spur us toward deeper persistence in prayer, consider the following insights on cynicism from Paul Miller’s book A Praying Life. Of course my ulterior motive is to get you to buy the book and read it.
The opposite of a childlike spirit is a cynical spirit. Cynicism is, increasingly, the dominant spirit of our age. Personally, it is my greatest struggle in prayer. If I get an answer to prayer, sometimes I’ll think, ‘It would have happened anyway.’ Other times I’ll try to pray but wonder if it makes any difference.
Many Christians stand at the edge of cynicism, struggling with a defeated weariness. Their spirits have begun to deaden, but unlike the cynic, they’ve not lost hope…
When I say that cynicism is the spirit of the age, I mean it is an influence, a tone that permeates our culture, one of the master temptations of our age. By reflecting on cynicism and defeated weariness, we are meditating on the last petition of the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one’ (Matthew 6:13, NIV).
…Satan’s first recorded words are cynical. He tells Adam and Eve, ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God’ (Genesis 3:5). Satan is suggesting that God’s motives are cynical. In essence, he tells them, ‘God has not been honest about the tree in the middle of the garden. The command not to eat from the tree isn’t for your protection; God wants to protect himself from rivals. He’s jealous. He’s projecting an image of caring for you, but he really has an agenda to protect himself. God has two faces.’ Satan seductively gives Adam and Eve the inside track – here is what is really going on behind closed doors. Such is the deadly intimacy that gossip offers.
Satan sees evil everywhere, even in God himself. Ironically, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since the Fall, evil feels omnipresent, making cynicism an easy sell. Because cynicism sees what is ‘really going on,’ it feels real, authentic. That gives cynicism an elite status since authenticity is one of the last remaining public virtues in our culture.
…Cynicism begins with the wry assurance that everyone has an angle. Behind every silver lining is a cloud. The cynic is always observing, critiquing, but never engaged, loving, and hoping… To be cynical is to be distant. While offering a false intimacy of being ‘in the know,’ cynicism actually destroys intimacy. It leads to a creeping bitterness that can deaden and even destroy the spirit…
A praying life is just the opposite. It engages evil. It doesn’t take no for an answer. The psalmist was in God’s face, hoping, dreaming, asking. Prayer is feisty. Cynicism, on the other hand, merely critiques. It is passive, cocooning itself from the passions of the great cosmic battle we are engaged in. It is without hope.
- from Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2009), 77-79.
