Pray “Please…”
by | Posted on May 17th in Pastors thoughtsI definitely don’t want to create rules for how to pray, but I’m very convicted about this… “prayer” is asking God to do something, so when you pray, are you actually asking God to do something, or do you just speak abut what you want?
See, the word “pray” means “ask”. So when we say to God, “I pray for…”, we’re just saying, “I ask for…”. And apart from being a bit indirect and beating around the bush, it means we get all tangled up and confused when we talk to God. I was once in a church where the guy leading in public prayer said “Lord, we pray for war.” Just think about what that prayer means!
I think we’re missing out on simply talking to God and asking him to do things!!
So have a go… I think you’ll find its a hard habit to break! Try praying “Lord, please…” and ask God to do something. Or, in other words, give God a verb!! Like: “change me”, “convert my friend”, “heal”, “destroy”, “renew”, “convict”, “take”, “open”, “speak”, etc…
Mark 10:15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
Can I encourage you to get out of the habit of saying “I pray” to your heavenly father, and instead simply say “Daddy, in Christ’s name, please…”
May 18th, 2010 at 8:38 am
I’ve found that using the word “ask” instead of “pray” when I pray is helpful in two ways: Firstly as you mention in your post it helps me to make meaningful, specific requests to my father rather than vague musings. Secondly though, using the word “ask” alerts me to the fact of how self-centred my prayers can become. If my prayers become full of “I ask” then it is a nice reminder to me to also fill my prayers with “You are …” and “Thank you for …”.
May 22nd, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Hi Dave,
I like the thrust of your post, and the helpfulness of using “ask”.
However - I’m not sure I follow your reasoning.
When you say that the word “pray” means “ask” - I’m guessing you’re referring to the Greek? Because the words “pray” and “prayer” have much greater range in common English, which I think is why they get used in the way you’re objecting to.
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Hi Sam, I’m not sure its a greek thing, but rather a ol’ english thing.
)
What people used to say when they spoke to someone important was, “I pray thee, may I take your coat?” or something like that. Or when you saw someone begging for their life, they were “praying the Judge to release them”.
So, “to pray” or “praying” is just the activity of “asking”, and a “prayer” is just “an appeal”.
So, even though its “common” for Christians us to say things like “I pray for war”. I’m just not sure what the person who says that to God thinks they are meaning. (tho I fully assume God knows their hearts and Jesus and the Spirit helpfully intercede at that point ala Rom 8
But I’m just raising the idea that we may just be using this as a shorthand for prayer, rather than actually asking God to do something.
Let me give another example. I’m currently sitting at my computer feeling quite sick with a cold. I could pray “God, I pray for health.” (and please hear me on this, that’s a great thing to pray!) But wouldn’t it be more natural to say, “God, please heal me.”
Or again, if my son came in with a cut on his toe and said “Father, I ask for a bandaid” or “I want a bandaid”, I’d certainly give him one! But I’d also wonder why he spoke to me like that!?
I’d rather he just said, “Dad, can you please put a bandaid on here?” Isn’t that more relational?
So I ’spose that’s my point… Its not about grammar, its about relating to your God like he’s your eternal Father through Christ.
I just wonder if God’s a bit weirded-out about the way we speak to him sometimes
I also wonder if it freaks out un-believers a bit too!