2 Ways To Pray Wrong

2 ways to pray wrong.

#1) Be so general in prayer even your wife will not know what you are talking about if she were to overhear.
Pick your straw-man. Hyper-Calvinist or Universalist?
Ask God to be aware of a generality.
Every thing is preset, you do not matter or He is too busy to hear what you need.
Is this what we used to hear about in American history?
Deism.
You know, God wound up the universe and let it go, and takes no interest in His creation.
He is then the divine watch maker.
It does not sound American but Thomas Jefferson is associated with this and his view of anti-supernatural work of God in the world.
Jefferson is perhaps our smartest man in American history, and dumbest on prayer if he held these views often taught in our schools.

#2) Give God more help and info than He needs. Name it and claim it. These straw men hyper-Armenians are practicing modern witch-craft by telling God how to reward themselves for their "best life now."

Why the emphasis on prayer?
I needed Him.
My prayer life has been awful.
I was wounded and needed Him bad.

A bonus bad way to think about prayer-
#3) Feel bad and guilty about prayer.
Some old preachers scold "You only go to Him when you need Him."
Glad God and my doctor do not answer me that way.
Actually that is great news.
God loves it when we go to Him.

Psalm 17:6 (New American Standard Bible)
"6 I have called upon You, for You will answer me, O God;
Incline Your ear to me, hear my speech."


Psalm "86:1 Incline Your ear, O LORD, and answer me;
For I am afflicted and needy."

This week in a Bible study we focused on prayers of regular people in the Bible.
The main thing is we need to pray in Jesus name - not just tack that saying on at the end of our prayer, and use our head and heart.
Yes, be specific in prayer.
Yes, pray for help.
Yes, pray for success.
Yes, pray for answers.
Two big boys, David and Job, took it all to Him - the good and bad and the why.
Guess what?
God is bigger.
He can handle it.
Corny but true - "Just Do It" like the old Nike add said.
Like David and Job, God will correct us as we pray.
A lot of these regular folks in the Bible were not using volumes of Systematic Theologies.
These regular folks cried from their needs and God heard and answered them.
What The LORD does not want you to do is be a non-participant in prayer.

John 14:13
"13 Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

In Christ Alone!

Fletcher