This
little cartoon says “...God has feelings to.” Interesting. How
often do we think about God’s feelings? Probably not as often as we
should. I understand that we live in a very busy world and with so
many concerns about our daily life, it is understandable that we
often have a rather large list of things to ask for. But perhaps our
prayers do not have the priorities that they should. Jesus taught us
how to pray...
Matthew 6 ( NASB )
9 “Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 ‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]
In short, this example of prayer teaches us to pray about
1. Honoring God ( vs.9 )
2. Following God’s will ( vs.10 )
3. Asking for the necessities of life ( vs.11 )
4. Exercising forgiveness ( vs.12 )
5. Temptation and deliverance from evil. ( vs. 13 ) [ Also, acknowledging that God is great and has power over all things ]
Notice the priorities: God and following him, then the necessities of life, followed by how we forgive ( others ) and lastly a concern for preventing evil from entering our life.
I don’t see a laundry list of things we want here, but rather relationships ( with God, man and evil ). This simple prayer of Jesus was ( is ) in contrast to the long profound prayers of the religious of Jesus’ day. When simplicity is coupled with sincerity, prayer takes on a whole new dimension; our hearts open wide and we genuinely commune with the Almighty. When this happens we give God the respect HE truly deserves.
When the only time I hear from a beloved one is when they just want something, I get a cold superficial feeling about the conversation. God wants more from us than that- HE wants LOVE!
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