I've heard people say that prayer is a way of talking to God, and that he wants us to communicate with him. However it sucks for God because a lot of people's communication with him can be pretty one-sided, since they often only pray when they want something. They pray that God helps them get this new job, or keeps their mother safe during her flight home, or grants them the strength to discipline their kids properly, or heals their best friend's cancer. Which isn't to say that praying for what you want is a completely selfish motive – as often times these prayers are for the benefit of others. But if God has an infinite plan for the entire universe, who are we to ask him to alter it? Seems kinda selfish, even if it's for a seemingly good reason at the time.
However, what I've been discovering by learning more about the Christian faith, actually reading the bible, hearing quite a few people speak on the subject, and a shit-load of internal reflection, is this: the Christian faith offers countless instructions for people to NOT think about themselves, but to think about God and other people first. This is pretty counter-intuitive to human nature, since we only survived as a species by tending to our personal needs above all others. We've had 10,000,000 years of training on how to be selfish, but it would seemingly take an act of God for us to transcend from our animal selves into truly spiritual and selfless beings (pun kinda intended). For example, the typical, instinctive prayer of asking for what you want just doesn't make sense, both from a logical and selfish standpoint. If you were to do the exact opposite and instead use your prayer to thank God for the things that he has already given you, it might be a little more satisfying experience. Or, if you find that God has withheld your most burning desires even after much prayer, you could try to find the lesson to be learned from not getting what you wanted, and thank him for making you the wiser by not simply handing things out at your slightest whimper.

Why not just say that one all the time? I think it could fit just about every circumstance.
Very insightful!
ReplyDeleteI think you may dismiss the value of asking God for things too quickly though. Let's say I'm out dancing and I know someone wants to dance with me and I'm looking forward to it. If I just walk over and start dancing with him that's not terrible but if he actually walks up to me and asks me to dance then, for me at least, the dance is more special because he put some effort into it. The outcome is the same, we have our dance, but our attitudes are different. If we ask God for something it shows that 1) we know He's bigger/smarter/etc than we are, and 2) that we need His help to get through life. Hopefully this builds our trust and our gratitude. But that has to balance with not only praying selfish prayers, as you pointed out. A huge dose of thankfulness for blessings already given is vastly underrated by many people!
Very good points, all of them. The "Asking for..." prayers make no sense.
ReplyDelete