I guess it's just our frail humanity. People spend so much time in the course of a day trying to be heard in getting their point across, that they think they have to speak to God the same way.
Make no mistake. We do like to be heard. We do like our point to be considered.
Especially if we think we have something important and profound to say.
There are issues of necessity that need to be conveyed in the course of daily living, like my wife telling me the printer is out of ink, or that we are running low on something.
However, much of what gets said in a 24 hour period is mainly comprised of useless and nonsensical prattle that will be forgotton 30 seconds after spoken.
I try not to bother God with that stuff. I'm working on not bothering anyone with that stuff. Especially God. I find people like that boring and self-seeking. Jesus says don't be like them.
Matthew 6:8 (AMP) - "Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him."
We don't even need to blather on before God about what we are praying about (which seriously redefines prayer for me).
If we need God's help, do we really need to go into detailed explanation about how little Jimmy's teeth need straightening and how we don't know where the five grand is going to come from to git r' done?
Is it any wonder that Jesus taught us to handle so much of the daily struggle ourselves through the authority of His name?
Instead we have taken His "model" of prayer (The Lord's Prayer) and treated it exactly like he told us not to just two verses previous from where he tells us HOW to pray!
We have taken the elemental instruction of prayer and turned it into a mindless mantra. I'm surprised more aren't sitting cross legged on the floor with their index fingers and thumbs formed in a circle!
See, He already knows. If He already knows, it must dictate to us that we do not need to reduntantly and repetitively keep asking (begging) Him. That's not what "Ask, seek, and knock" means.
The Church has missed it on prayer. For most of it's existence it has missed it. We have nullified the power and influence of God within the Church by our increased misunderstanding about how to pray. We have read volumes of books by men we have endorsed as "experts" on prayer, and have listened more to them than the simple instruction of Jesus.
Somewhere along the way we have detached faith and action and became lazy and flabby by believing if we just keep pestering the Sugar Daddy enough we can break Him down and get what we want. Or not. When not we become inwardly (maybe outwardly) angry at Him. All for the failure to understand a simple direction of Jesus.
That system is a dismal failure and has resulted in generations who have come and gone without ever seeing the Church reaching its full potential. We can turn anything pure from God into religious dogma given half a chance.
Not me. I want more.
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
www.reallifect.com
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