I have been around Christians and Church my entire life and
I am intrigued by our idiosyncrasies. I
am especially fascinated by the way that we pray.
We say things like:
“Lord, I pray that you would put a hedge of protection
around us.”
“God, help us to be Jesus with skin on today.”
“Father God, I pray that, Jesus, you would help us Lord, to
have a good day, Father God.
We say that Prayer is simply talking to God, why do we say
such weird things when we pray?
What is a “hedge of protection?” Do we even know?
No, we just heard someone else pray that and so we pray it.
What does it look like to be “Jesus with skin on?” Is there a Jesus without skin on, walking
around? I think that would really freak
people out.
Why do we feel compelled to say varieties of God’s name in
every sentence of our prayers?
How odd would it sound to you if you heard me talking to my
wife like this? “Dianne, I just want to
ask you, Dianne, if you could make me some food, Dianne?”
Why do we bow our heads and close our eyes when we pray, when Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven when he prayed? (Matthew 14:19)
Before you think that I have appointed myself as the prayer
police, I must admit that I am sure that I have done all the things that I have
just described when I have prayed.
The reason that I think that we say odd things when we pray
is two-fold.
1 1.
We pray the way we have heard others pray.
2 2.
We are nervous when we pray.
1. We pray the way we have heard others pray
It is natural to repeat the behavior of the people around
us.
The first time I heard my kids pray over a meal and say, “Lord
bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies,” I had to laugh!
Why would a six-year-old kid ask for God for “nourishment?”
Is this something they would naturally ask for?
No, they were repeating what they had heard me pray.
I then asked why I prayed that way. Because, I heard my parents pray that way,
who heard their parents pray that way, who heard. . . and so on.
3 2. We are nervous!
I think that we are nervous for a couple of reasons.
First, we are talking to the creator of the universe. That’s pretty intimidating. I think that’s why we lean towards saying God’s
name a thousand times and making them too formal.
Second, when we pray with others around, I think we want to
sound spiritual and impressive. But the
result is that we just sound weird.
I remember reading about Moses and how he talked to God like
a man speaks with his friend, and I realized that I don’t talk to God that
way. My prayers sounded like I was
talking to a scary God a million miles away.
I decided a long time ago, that was going to change.
Many years ago I was hanging out with a teenager, who loved
to skateboard and had recently committed his life to Christ. His prayer sounded something like this:
“God your so stinkin cool.
You are so totally Rad. I wish
that we could just hang out and go skateboarding sometime. I know that you would have to be so amazing
at it. I mean you like totally walked on
water. Anyways, My Mom and Dad hate each
other right now and are talking about getting a divorce. Would you change this for me? That would be so totally awesome. I love you.
Peace Out!”
That was someone talking to God like he was his friend!
I decided to start talking to God like that!
I John 4 says “God is love.
And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of
judgement, but can face him with confidence.
Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of
punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
We love him because he first loved us.”
All that we do is a response to what God has already done
for us!
Through Jesus we can come boldly come to God the Father!
Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants but friends.”
What if we stopped talking to God like he is our master and started talking to him like he was our friend?
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