Citizen Columns
Question
Is it wrong to pray for our own advancement, like winning at sports or getting a promotion?
Answer
Although there are some Christians who preach a “prosperity gospel,” on the whole we have an ambivalent attitude toward worldly success and look at it, as we do everything else, in the light of Christ.
On the one hand the Orthodox tradition has plenty of prayers (based on the Bible) asking for success and satisfaction in work and life. “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands” (Psalm 90:17). And again: “Bless the Lord God on every occasion; ask him that your ways may be made straight and that all your paths and plans may prosper”(Tobit 4:19). We have faith that God loves us and is interested in the mundane details, joys, hopes and anxieties that make up our daily existence. We believe that we work together with Him in everything, so of course we bring all these to him, including the normal hope of advancing in all our pursuits (assuming they don’t go against His commandments).
But success is never meant merely for self-satisfaction. At a marriage we ask God that the couple may abound in all material blessings, “so that they in turn may give to those in need.” As we pray for advancement, we need to ask ourselves, “What will I do with it? How will I make this world a better place?”
But the deepest questions about success are posed by Christ and the cross. It’s hard to imagine Jesus praying to win a golf game or to get a corner office. He prays instead for strength to give up his life for others. And he prays for his disciples that their strength won’t fail when they are put to the test. Early Christianity first appealed to those who had no great prospects for worldly success. Indeed it appealed to the weak and powerless precisely because it presented God as a crucified failure who identifies with their weakness and suffering.
So we pray for advancement, but always mindful of its ambiguities.
Father John Jillions
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