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Guest Post - Misusing Prayer

4/5/2016

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Well, I haven't had much time for writing lately, deployment has been fairly busy. Fortunately, I just received my first guest submission from a longtime friend, who happens to drive a '66 Mustang, and is therefore obviously a good person. He's also a solid Christian brother of mine who has given me critical (and at times painful) advice over the years, which is why I trust him enough to share him on my blog.

Without further ado, here it is...

"Just pray about it."
"I’ll pray for you."
"Can you pray about___?"
I hate these phrases. I’m so tired of hearing them.
Prayer is a cop out.
You know I didn’t just say that… Did you just gasp? Was that offensive? Buckle up…

​
We don’t use prayer for what it is intended for. How much of our prayer is comprised of asking for favors? Please help me get there on time. Please help me pass this test. Please ____…..
Prayer is not a “get-out of jail free” card that is always available to us. I’m talking about times where we pray for God to get us out of tight spots that we’ve put ourselves into. ‘Pray that I can get this project finished before the deadline’, ‘pray that I can pass my test’, ‘pray that I can find my__’, ‘pray that I can start remembering to___’.
That sounds like a self-absorbed toddler asking for a cookie. That sounds like whining.
When we procrastinate, or just don’t take action when we need to, praying about it to work out in our favor anyway, isn’t necessarily the direction that we should fall back on. I’m not trying to limit the things that God can or will do for us, but when we pray for God to help us in these hours of self-inflicted discomfort, I think that we are missing it.
Instead of putting the responsibility on God (expecting/asking him to bridge the gap) perhaps, what we should be asking is ‘what can we learn from this situation?’ Why am I in this predicament in the first place? Is there something that I could/should have done that would have prevented me from being in this position? Maybe we should stop whining and eat our vegetables. (except beets, I really hate beets)

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    I'm J.R., a US Navy veteran and Linguist. This blog is devoted to insights and experiences I've gained over the years.

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