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Silly Prayers
Eric Hogue
Is there such a thing as a "silly prayer"?
If you want to dialogue on a topic that has dual perspectives from those inside of the church bottle, as well as the culture reading the label on the outside of our bottle, this is it.
When the cultural community hears someone "brag" (I'm not so sure it is always praise) about God answering their prayer for an "up-front, close parking spot," the cultural community can get downright angry. With 13-million orphaned children dying in the face of HIV and AIDS, they ask, "Who cares about your prima-donna parking spot; so you have to walk 50 yards... maybe God wants you to have better heart health?"
Just the other day a co-worker entered the break room proclaiming that God had just answered her prayer. Seems that she had been having a bad morning, and she asked the Lord for a parking spot closer to the building. She wasn't late, nor was there an emergency awaiting her immediate attention. She explained, "I needed to have a good start to the week, so I asked God for the the best parking spot in the corporate lot."
I tried to put this situation out of my mind for the rest of the day, but my weakness is analysis; I over-analyze everything. I couldn't help but notice the 'unsaved' fellow employees sitting in the break room when she came in announcing her miracle. Their demeanor became subdued, and a few eyes were looking across the kitchen table synchronizing with others as if to say, "is she serious?"
I also noticed a few individuals playing back recent trials and tribulations in this minds. One co-worker had recently lost a close family member to cancer. If I could have read her mind... "So God answers Peggy's prayers for parking spots, but not for husbands and fathers who are suffering with cancer."
Yes, God is in the details of our lives and our hearts. He wants us to cast every care upon Him. I believe that Abba Father performs many miracles - most of which we never notice. As absurd as this may sound, I do believe God answers "silly prayers." Maybe it's a maturity thing; you know... as a child I spoke as a child, but then I was encouraged to put away childish things. Maybe it's the American in us. Because of tedium, or creature comforts, we 'feel' we have to pray about 'something.' We pick trivial matters to pray about, so to satisfy our tedious Christian culture.
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patiocook
3/21/2007 4:55 PM
I think it can be dangerous to try to catagorize or put every thing into neet boxes of understanding. By its defenition "silly" has a derogatory and negative connotation implying uselessness or stupidity even. If we serve such a big God as one other bloger put it. He could use even the mention of a silly prayer, being as immature as it may be to mention it, to touch some ones life.
A person in a desperat situation that is doughting the existence of God and his love for them, may be looking some shread of evidence that He cares.
Calling someones prayer "silly" could be as damaging as a anti gay sticker on you bumper. You would neet to make sure that you have backed it up with copious amounts of love so you don't damage your witness.
A person in a desperat situation that is doughting the existence of God and his love for them, may be looking some shread of evidence that He cares.
Calling someones prayer "silly" could be as damaging as a anti gay sticker on you bumper. You would neet to make sure that you have backed it up with copious amounts of love so you don't damage your witness.
timbo6585
3/21/2007 2:56 PM
The only thing that bothers me about the parking lot prayer is that its putting ourselves before others. If your late, in poor health, or some other reason where there's a legitimate reason to grab the closest spot then that's fine. But if not then that just means that whoever comes next is going to have to park further away. In our way of life we're supposed to seek to serve others, the first will be last and the last will be first. True, it's just a parking spot, but how we handle the little stuff will help us when we have to handle the bigger stuff.
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If we had a chance to go before an earthly king, what would we ask? Well, when we pray we go before a God who is much much greater than any king, so what would we ask? We should take our prayers very seriously and should practice praying for others more than we pray for ourselves. If Jesus is our Lord, then we can be sure that He knows about our needs before we even ask.