Want Lower Gas Prices? Pray for Them…
May 27, 2008 by Miranda Marquit
Filed under Finance
With worries about a recession coming in the midst of higher oil prices, it has come to my attention that my 5 tips for saving money on gas is missing something: Prayer. That’s right. We should be praying for lower gas prices. The Baltimore Sun has this story about one man’s quest to get God to intervene:
Standing alongside a row of gas pumps at a Shell station, Rocky Twyman joined hands with several cohorts, prayed to God for economic and social relief then sang “We Shall Overcome” – inserting the lyrics “We’ll have lower gas prices” the second time around.
For nearly a month, Twyman, a Rockville resident who serves as music director for a Baltimore church, has been praying at gas pumps – and anywhere else he is welcome – asking God to lower prices. Of course, since he started his prayer campaign, or what he calls a movement, the price of gas just keep inching upwards.
“We’ve got a lot more praying to do, man,” he said to a German television crew that came to film one of his recent prayer sessions at the Shell station.
Now, I’m a devout Christian. I believe that I will blessed with what I need — perhaps not always with what I want — if I follow God’s laws of finances (helping the needy, good stewardship of my resources, etc.), but I’m not sure standing around at gas stations, praying for lower gas prices, qualifies.
I tend to think that God will be more rewarding to us if we take our focus away from fossil fuels that pollute this beautiful world He made for us. Maybe these rising gas prices are actually a sign that we need to shift our economy away from oil…
image credit: Ravi Poovaiah
“Maybe these rising gas prices are actually a sign that we need to shift our economy away from oil…”
Well, hopefully this will push things in the right direction. As for praying… I guess it can’t hurt. :)
We’ll see :0) Praying never hurts, but in cases like this, I find that it is better to do something. After all, God doesn’t do for us what we can do for ourselves…
I don’t know… if Mr. Twyman is praying instead of driving, at least he’s helping by using a little less gas. Every minute he’s off the road helps, I think.
You make a good point, Thursday! As long as he is spending less time on the road, and just organizing these prayer circles when he *needs* to fill up.
If he is encouraging people to come out to these meetings, and going around just to hold them, he may actually be encouraging more driving and gas use…
Thanks for noticing that, Miranda. The article explains Twyman’s rationale regarding his driving, “Technically, he could take the subway from his home to the soup kitchen where he’s been going on weekly praying jaunts, but that would get in the way of the photo opportunities. “I have to fill up my pump for the story,” he said. “I just feel like the results outweigh the violation.” Boy, does that feel like a NIMBY reason to me!
Regarding the praying (and I take my life in my hands to write this:) my own feeling is that whatever deity or force exists is probably so disgusted with the actions and attitudes of the human race that responding to requests isn’t much of a priority.
Great. Just great. So, um, he deliberately contributes to the problem, and then asks God to fix it? Um, right. I’m sure God loves that. When was the last time He was an ends-justify-the-means deity?
I think with the rise of the Abundance Gospel, but I don’t remember the date.
LOL. ;)
Actually, God will meet our need, but it would be better for him to pray that God supplies the money he needs to pay for the gas, than praying for the prices themselves. Contrary to what some of you think, God does want to bless us and help us out.
And something else I’d like to point out is that if He really was “disgusted with the actions and attitudes of the human race that responding to requests isn’t much of a priority”, then would He have bothered sending His son to die for all of us?
He tells us in James (I think it is) that we have not because we ask not. But other times we’re asking when He’s already given it to us, then we need to utilize it.
http://www.marsha-improvingyourqualityoflife.blogspot.com
Bless