Wednesday, January 30, 2008

A thought on prayer

I've had the privilege of interacting with my sister-in-law recently about a talk she's going to give soon on the topic of prayer. She asked my wife & I if we'd take a look, and I realized two things. First, she'd done a pretty good job of looking into the matter. Second, I think that her sources--among the best and most prestigious in evangelicalism--seem to actually obscure what prayer is about by going into a lot of nitty gritty details and examples--more or less making a talk with one's father into a doctoral dissertation.

And of course, nobody, including some committee members, actually bothers to read such documents. To use that genre completely obscures what prayer is all about.

So here's my challenge to the "multitude" of my readers; meditate upon the first line of the Lord's Prayer; "Our Father, which art in Heaven." Contemplate what a privilege it is to have the Creator of the Universe in your family, and have a word with Him today.

6 comments:

W.B. Picklesworth said...

Bingo. I was thinking about that very thing last night and you put it very well.

Anonymous said...

I have gotten a number of 'coincidental' messages over the last few days, and now I'll add this to the list.

I'm going to try and forget everything I've ever learned about Christianity---especially subjects like prayer and faith---and start all over from scratch. I am going to search scripture for the most simple and basic truths of what it means to walk with God, and just start back on the path from there.

W.B. Picklesworth said...

Goodness KD, you sound Rene Descartes!

Bike Bubba said...

Be careful, KD; even Luther didn't jettison the Council of Nicea. Baptists like myself are fond of trying to do exactly what you say, with often disastrous results.

Absolutely go back to sola Scriptura; just don't ignore the example of those who have gone before us.

(I'm pretty sure you're not trying to do this, but--sorry--I figure that a warning is important on the off chance you're trying to play Descartes, as Ben says)

Anonymous said...

I understand the warning. I guess what I'm trying to get at is a more heartfelt understanding of scripture rather than just an intellectual understanding.

I want more of Christ, and less of Christianity as it's preached in it's myriad of forms.

imfreenow.blogspot.com said...

I heard a Messianic Jewish preacher say that we pray a dangerous prayer when we pray "Our Father....thy Kingdom come, thy will be done," and that we shouldn't be surprised at the thing that come into our lives as a result of that prayer! What rearrangements might be necessary in order for the kingdom of God to come in our lives?