Paradigms of Prayer
Getting more OF instead of getting more FROM - PAPA Prayer - Day 17
The author shares how much of his Christian life he has been taught and encouraged by various churches/ministries/examples that praying is getting something FROM God – usually a blessing that would make his life more comfortable. Many ‘health and wealth’ subscribers questioned faith and relationship with God when specific things were not received in answer to sincere and fervent prayer requests. Hard times were often unexplainable to these subscribers and sometimes resulted in a falling away from the faith.
Other scripture emphasized the difference between petitional praise and relational praise. Psalm 103:1-2 for example shows how the praise is first directed toward God’s name and then toward His benefits. Several times in scripture we also see people praising God in the midst of trials, so relational praise would there be focusing on hope and promises that God has made for eventualities – rather than ‘just’ praise for immediate things or happenings that we’d requested.
Eight assumptions form a convincing difference between the ‘Get to Know God Better” way of praying (relational prayer) and the “Get Things from God way of praying. I’ll share the first and the last:
Assumption 1 is the main one often missed – We are the audience. Prayer is more about us hearing God than about him hearing us.
That is the difference between the first two definitions of prayer – Webster’s dictionary:
a devout petition to god .
a spiritual communion with God as in supplication, thanksgiving, adoration, or confession
Assumption 8: Knowing God changes what we most want in this life, and that changes what we most fervently request.
Food:
Dropped the camera - hope it's ok - will have it checked out tomorrow.
Food today: Watermelon, Tuna steak, Raw marinated peas, onions, tomatoes
No comments:
Post a Comment