Telling God What To Do
Praying that is really nonsense verses praying that is Biblical
Last time we looked at 15 prayers recorded the the Biblical text in Prayers The Lord Hears. One common element among many of them is a humble request of the Lord. These requests were for a desire or need of the petitioner, but the outcome of it was left to the Lord.
Each recognized their utter dependence on God and need for His help—for success, for deliverance, for surety, for healing, for mercy, for wisdom, or for boldness; because of humiliation, because of affliction, because of uncertainty, or because of fear; with thanksgiving, with praise, or with humility.
Over and over through the Scriptures, the prayers we read not only recognize the sovereignty of God as king over His creation—but also that in hearing and answering the petition, the Lord’s will would be done, resulting in His glory.
In short, these prayers are primarily God-focused.
In contrast, this is one way being taught today:
We do not recommend praying that way
Each of these points is self-focused, and the desired outcome—not on the Lord’s will, but on a set of ‘make me successful’ expectations. While it directs the petitions to God, and does so in Jesus name, and uses spiritual sounding language, not one can be found by chapter and verse.
Look instead how Paul approaches his prayer in Ephesians 3:14: For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he prays that the followers of Christ would:
be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man
have Christ dwelling in our hearts through faith
be rooted and grounded in love
be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height
to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge
be filled with all the fullness of God.
Note that each of these six requests Paul is praying is the Lord’s desire and will for His people— that He would grant you…these things. His language is not of fire, miracles, or breakthroughs, of angels, the devil, or avenging.
Here’s the thing: The list from the shared post are not really prayers, but are instead akin to magical formulas, spells or incantations, or mantras—all focused on what the asker wants from God for himself, his victory or success or breakthroughs or something. He is doing the commanding, rejecting, binding, or releasing. This is not a humble plea, but trying to direct the Lord to produce his own outcome.
And it is all gibberish nonsense. This type of wording comes often from extreme charismatic circles, or those from a prosperity gospel background. They take a position that the words we speak have power in themselves to produce the outcome we seek, or that we are really little gods to command as we will.
But we cannot find—in the whole of the Bible, any prayer recorded that resembles anything like this: not the patriarchs, kings, prophets or priests. Nor are they found in the prayers of Jesus, or any of the apostles.
Neither should they be found in the Church today
Pray For The People Of God From The Word Of God
Here are three passages we are praying from this week (one passage per day):
Monday - Luke 10:2
Tuesday - Luke 11:9
Wednesday - Luke 12:31
Will you join me in praying these verses, and ask one person to join you?
Until Thursday, grace and peace
Photo by Juliana Romão on Unsplash