All About Me (I Mean HIM)
03 November, 2015
I recently stumbled upon a sermon online called "A Lesson on Prayer: Not How to Pray, But How to Get Answers!" It struck me as odd and rather self-centered. But honestly, it didn't surprise me. In such a ME focused culture, we Christians can often fall victim to making our faith less about our adoration and gratefulness of Jesus and more about how to use His help to catapult our own personal, fleeting achievement.
Prayer is a time of communion to center ourselves on Jesus Christ. Just take a look at the famous "Our Father," which Jesus gave as a prototype of how to pray. "Our Father, who art in Heaven, Holy is Your Name." The prayer begins by giving glory to God, not by begging for our needs to be answered. Jesus is not a circus monkey to answer everything we ask. He can and will of course answer the prayers and requests He wishes to grant, but not without our hearts being in a position of worship and thankfulness.
In my eyes, prayer lends itself to a lactose intolerant five-year-old and their father. If the five-year-old is causing a scene in Whole Foods about wanting regular chocolate milk instead of chocolate almond milk, a responsible parent would not give in, as it would most likely lead to similar episodes in the near future. A loving parent gives their child what they know their child needs and what they know is BEST for them.
No matter how much we may want the chocolate milk, the almond milk will suffice perfectly well because it's BETTER for us in the long run. How often I have begged God for a specific opportunity, job, boyfriend, or award and not received it, realizing later how grateful I was for NOT getting it.
If we pray with an attitude that God's #1, it will give us a mindset of wanting to do everything in our power to please Him. When we go into prayer giving ourselves spot #1 and God #2, our priorities are out of whack and our brain is fogged.
God works with humble hearts. Sure, we are His sons and daughters, but that means we have a duty to uphold His great name, remembering He is King, even over our own lives.
A lot of women ask me how to structure their prayer times. It’s one thing to set aside an “appointment with the Lord”, but then what? How do we really connect with the King of the Universe in a significant way? There is no magic formula for prayer and seeking God, and every prayer time will probably be a little different. But a good rule of thumb is this - make it all about Him, instead of all about you. (Leslie Ludy)
