PRAYER: More than a Tool for Self-Expression

Prayer is more than a tool for self-expression.

It is more than a means to get God to give us what we want.

The truth is: PRAYER is a means GOD uses to give us what he wants and to teach us to want what he wants.

Holy Scripture in general teaches us who God is and what he wants to give.

People complained that the words of prayers done in a fellowship or the liturgy did not express what they felt. Of a truth, they weren’t supposed to express what you felt; you were supposed to feel what the words expressed. This mistake has led many to ignore some prayer points and bible passages (many choose the Bible passages that express how they feel and what they want) 

To pray with the Words from the Bible, is to be taught by the Bible to pray and to learn to want and feel what the Bible expresses—to say what it means and mean what it says.

Those who have practiced this kind of prayer over time make a surprising discovery: As they learn to feel what the Bible expresses; their hearts and desires are enlarged. *They find that what they once regarded as strong desires were really weak, puerile little wishes, debased inklings of what is good.*

Of course! Would not the God who made us in his own image understand better than we ever could what we really need? And shouldn’t we ask him for it?

Let's consider C. S. Lewis' statement:

"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord fi nds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infi nite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea."

We are far too easily pleased. We easily carried away by our self desires and wants. Many preachers have made us believe that we can get what we want in life at any time we speak. That isn't through. If it happens for them as they say, I argue not with them but Christ said, "many shall say we did miracles and signs and wonders in your name...and God shall say, 'depart from me you workers of iniquity.' " 

Though you get results as you wish, at any time, but they don't implies that they were God's. The devil can be very crafty and cunning.

Someone said, "The best part of prayer is who you pray to." 

The feelings you get when you receive Answers to your Prayers are nothing compare to what you receives when you intimate with the Answerer.

Spend enough time with Jesus, and you’ll start to look and think and act like Jesus. Seeing is becoming. 

The church father Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God.”

It’s true: God is never more glorified than when we come alive to the vision of God.