I have been reading about and thinking about prayer. Paul Miller’s A Praying Life has been a great encouragement. If you have not read this book yet, I would encourage you to pick it up. I am about half way through it and have already found many helpful little quotes.
The one I want to highlight today has to do with a tendency in my own life and I fear in the lives of others. When I pray, I tend to be so fearful that I will ask for something selfish or against God’s will that I self edit before I even say what is really on my heart. In chapter 14 Miller addresses teachers who tell you not to pray about certain things. For example, they will say if you hear sirens and see a fire truck going down the street in the direction of your house, do not pray it is not your house because that means you would rather it be someone else’s house. One writer suggests that we should pray, “God, may it be my house, but may no one be hurt.”
In response to this, Miller writes,
The root problem is that this writer is overspiritualizing prayer. He submits so quickly to God that he as a person can’t emerge. When Jesus prays at Gethsemane “take this cup from me,” he is being real; Christians rush to “not my will, but yours be done” without first expressing their hearts (Luke 22:42, NIV). They submit so quickly that they disappear. Overspiritualizing prayer suppresses our natural desire that our house not be burning. When we stop being ourselves with God, we are no longer in real conversation with God.” pgs 121-122
What do you think? Do you agree? Remember that he is not saying that we should forget all about what God wants and just seek our desires, but he is telling us that we need to be real. If we cannot be real with God about what is really on our hearts, who can we be real with? Is this one of the reasons we find it so difficult to pray? Are we so concerned with getting it “wrong” that we stop praying altogether? It seems to me that this struggle is especially common in public prayers.
So, let’s hear from you. What do you think about all this? How do you pray?
Hey everyone! I am working on the post concerning the book, but I wanted to throw out this post to see what your thoughts are on this. Does this make you question McCain more or trust him more? Why?
I am very curious as to how this might affect the election in November.
What are your thoughts?
Michael
Many in the Christian community had particularly high hopes and expectations for Mike Huckabee during this year’s Republican nomination process. Personally, I supported Fred Thompson, and then Mitt Romney until the concession of each. None of those people are going to be elected President in 2008. John McCain, whose name was spoken with something just shy of disgust by many among the conservative faithful, has secured the nomination and will be running against either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. This being the case, I’d like to take a minute to point out to every one that Senator McCain ain’t really all that bad. Read the rest of this entry »
When I listen to some of the arguments currently being made surrounding the latest Democratic National Convention, I’m reminded of a child who, given a cake that doesn’t meet his standards, wants to throw it in the garbage in protest and eat it too. The situation is this: The DNC stripped Florida and Michigan of their delegates in response to the defiant rescheduling of their respective primaries, rendering their elections meaningless. It has now become a very real possibility that without the seating of those delegates, the primary process will not elect a nominee at this stage. Both states are now attempting to capitalize on this leverage, in order to somehow regain a say in the party’s decision. Interesting (to me) as all of the circumstances surrounding this situation are, I’ll spare you any further details.
So, what valuable lesson can all of us take from this whole mess? Read the rest of this entry »
I’m not sure what you think about the race between Huckabee and McCain, but I thought I would throw in a speech I just watched. It is very interesting and I would love to hear your thoughts.
Here is the place to go watch it.
Enjoy!
Michael
After last night, it seems that the Repubilcan nomination is pretty close to being decided. There’s been a lot of talk this year about vote splitting among certain candidates and other strategic political matters. Mitt Romney was particularly blunt in the weeks leading up to Super Tuesday in his calls for Huckabee to step away from the race and allow him to battle McCain one-on-one, saying that a vote for Huckabee was a vote for McCain. What are your general thoughts on how this race has played out? Up until now, there hasn’t been much discussion of John McCain on this site. Since he will almost definitely be the Republican candidate for President, I’d be interested to read your thoughts on that prospect as well.
As a nation, how many chances should we be willing to give those who commit the most heinous of crimes? Previously, we discussed Mike Huckabee’s plea for the U.S. voters not to look at our prison system as a means of heaping wrath upon those who’ve acted outside of our social norms, or even those who have done us harm. Mitt Romney has recently made headlines tackling a similar issue from a different perspective. He is advocating for a serious response to child predation at the federal level. The policy is nicknamed “One Strike, You’reOurs”. Read the rest of this entry »
How should a thinking Christian view a Santa Claus?
Heresy! Is that what you expected me to say? I thought so. Many Christians immediately think of the aspect of lying to their children and many other reasons NOT to have Santa. As the church lady on Saturday Night Live used to say, Read the rest of this entry »
We live in a fallen world. Generally speaking, people live to follow their own whims and desires. The only difference between most is how far they’re willing to go in their pursuits. Many can be dissuaded by the mere threat of social disapproval. Others are much more determined. Some would have no difficulty hurting or even killing another person if that was what it would take to accomplish their goals.
So, now that we’ve made the brilliant observation that there are dangerous people in the world, we can begin to discuss how we would desire for our government to handle them. Read the rest of this entry »
Or, as Jack in The Nightmare Before Christmas said, Sandy Claws!
Merry Christmas everyone!
I was reading some of the blogs I typically do and ran across this short one I thought you might be interested in. Check it out.
I also wanted to ask all of you if you did the whole “Santa Claus” thing. If you do, why? If you do not, why not?
A couple of days after Christmas I will give some thoughts here on the blog, but I want to give you some time to think and comment if you wish.
Michael
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=db5d8717-7ba4-4a3d-b9dd-9a7c1384b750)