{"id":115,"date":"2008-10-20T09:19:14","date_gmt":"2008-10-20T13:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidcprice.wordpress.com\/?p=115"},"modified":"2008-10-20T09:19:14","modified_gmt":"2008-10-20T13:19:14","slug":"the-powerless-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/the-powerless-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Powerless Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m in a new series on prayer as we look at what has been traditionally called “The Lord’s Prayer” or “The Model Prayer.”\u00a0 When we start looking at what Christ said prayer is and isn’t<\/em>, we quickly realize that much of what we do really isn’t prayer at all…at least not the kind that Jesus said is acceptable to the Father.<\/p>\n

In Matthew 6, he said that hypocritical prayer is the kind that uses empty phrases and lots of words we don’t mean, or at least haven’t really thought about when we said them.\u00a0 Prayers like those we teach our kids to say at night or at the dinner table.\u00a0 You know, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the kids won’t make a peep…” or something like that.\u00a0 Though some would argue that it is a good thing that we teach our kids the habit or lifestyle of prayer, I would contend that our good intentions are being sabotaged by bad technique and principles.<\/p>\n

When we have them memorize rote prayers, are we not teaching them to pray the very kind of prayer that Jesus spoke against?\u00a0 It’s like saying the Lord’s Prayer every day and that constituting your time in prayer, which, according to verse 7, would never have been Christ’s intention.\u00a0 No meaningful conversation is being had.\u00a0 There is no revealing of your heart in thoughts towards God.\u00a0 In the same way, our children are not learning to converse with God, either.<\/p>\n

Would we not be much better off teaching our kids to actually<\/em> talk to God about what they are thinking and feeling?\u00a0 Teach them to pray daily, but make it real.\u00a0 Talk to them about actually being thankful for the food they have and, in simple words, tell Him<\/em>.\u00a0 Are they concerned about someone, thankful that God brought them through the day, or happy about a certain outcome, then teach them to tell God that before they go to bed.<\/p>\n

I think Satan is no happier than when we reinforce the empty, hypocritical prayers in the next generation that have kept God’s people from engaging in meaningful dialoague for decades.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m in a new series on prayer as we look at what has been traditionally called “The Lord’s Prayer” or “The Model Prayer.” When we start looking at what Christ said prayer is and isn’t, we quickly realize that much of what we do really isn’t prayer at all…at least not the kind that Jesus said is acceptable to the Father.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4,20],"tags":[684,264,348],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3jKZO-1R","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":183,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/ridiculously-blessed\/","url_meta":{"origin":115,"position":0},"title":"Ridiculously Blessed","date":"November 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I am continuing a series on the Lord's Prayer called \"GodTalk.\" It's been interesting to slow down and really look at what Jesus was telling us to do in that short prayer. Yesterday, we looked at the phrase, \"Give us this day our daily bread.\" We'll take that in two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2497,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/prayer-less\/","url_meta":{"origin":115,"position":1},"title":"Prayer…less","date":"October 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I was reminded again today just how easy it is to completely eliminate prayer from your life besides a quick, \"Thank you, Lord, for the food.\" With the prayer goes the power.","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2302,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/children-and-salvation-is-it-ever-too-early\/","url_meta":{"origin":115,"position":2},"title":"Children and Salvation: Is It Ever Too Early?","date":"May 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"My six-year old was saved Monday. Well, at least that's what he told me when he came home from school. As it turns out, a children's ministry from a local church holds a voluntary Bible club with the kids after school every so often and so, during that time, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christianity"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5192,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/a-puritan-prayer-to-be-fit-for-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":115,"position":3},"title":"A Puritan Prayer: “To Be Fit For God”","date":"October 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/what-difference-does-prayer-really-make\/","url_meta":{"origin":115,"position":4},"title":"What Difference Does Prayer Really Make?","date":"October 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Since God knows everything before we even know we need something (Matthew 6:32) and because He has no need of anything, including praise, thanks, etc. (Acts 17:24-25 - that is to say, though He may desire to hear our thanks, it is not something He needs to feel good about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "PSI (Personal Spiritual Insight)"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1430,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/drive-through-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":115,"position":5},"title":"Drive Through Prayer?","date":"April 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A church in Ft. Lauderdale has begun offering drive-thru prayer services for those in need. Good idea, right? After all, who couldn\u2019t use a little prayer? The Pentecostal congregation has been offering drive-thru prayer services every Friday for the last month, according to the Sun-Sentinel. Outreach Pastor Sol Levy says\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christianity"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}