Have you ever thought a little critically and maybe uncharitably about someone else’s prayers? It’s hard to admit, but there have been times when I’ve scoffed a little when someone prays, “Lord, please be with them.”

My theological mind immediately sends out an alert. “Um, don’t you know about the omnipresence of God?” And then the critical and uncharitable part of my flesh secretly scoffs, “What a generalized prayer. What these people needed was more specific and targeted prayers that focused on their exact situation and struggles!”

Thankfully, my God renews his mercies every day and has gently convicted me over the years of this ungracious and unkind reflex of my flesh. But lately I’ve come to realize there’s more dimension to this prayer than I had thought. Many of us might grasp for these words out of a kind of desperation, hampered by a stilted prayer vocabulary, but I…

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Who hardened the Pharaoh’s heart?

Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:

God did.

“The Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” (Exodus 4:21)

“But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 7:3)

“Yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.” (Exodus 7:13)

“And the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses.” (Exodus 9:12)

“Then…

It is uncommon to meet a genuine giver.

My grandfather was one: happy to delight others. One bright March afternoon, on my tenth birthday, he surprised me with an enormous teddy bear. This was no ordinary stuffed animal, but a Gund: soft, stitched to perfection, and created to last. Grandpa embraced quality: no cheap gifts on his watch.

One day, he invited me on an errand to the local feed and hardware establishment. He loved to tinker in hardware stores. Never mind that he was far from handy and could fix nothing without the use of duct tape. It was the comradery he enjoyed with the other fellows, who were clad in tired jeans and worn tool belts, wandering the aisles, assisting customers with a clipped: Morning! while sipping their steaming coffee.

As Grandpa chatted, I meandered the aisles, suddenly drawn to the cheeping sounds from the far corner…

God, who is revealed to us in the Bible, is not diminished when we deny his existence; we are. Think for a bit about this very moment of your life. Right now, your mind, without a sound, is receiving communication from my mind, and I made this communication silently as well. Of course, the same communication could have occurred if I projected a series of sounds through the air that rattled against your eardrums.

You are a being of body and spirit. You have an intricate muscular and skeletal system keeping you from collapsing. A respiratory and digestive system are supplying a circulatory system that is nourishing your muscles and bones, and your nervous system is involved in all of it. Some of the acts you are doing at this moment, like reading, are voluntary, but thousands of acts are involuntary. You continue to do them without even thinking about…