Our Lord appreciates and honors prayers that come from pure, holy, and sincere hearts.
What is the difference in these two sets of "church service" prayers?
First prayer example:
Father, thank You for waking us up this morning to see another day. Thank You, Lord, for our children and for our families. Thank You for the food we eat. Thank You for our jobs and for giving us transportation. Thank You for our pastor and his lovely wife and family.
Lord bless us this day. Bless our children and our families. Bless us, please, in our jobs. Give us all that we need. Please heal our bodies and give us strength to make it through each day. Save our loved ones, Lord, and protect us from danger. Provide for our church building fund, and defend us against our enemies.
Thank You, Lord - Amen.
Second prayer example:
Father, in the name of JESUS, you are GOD who rules in the kingdom of men. The earth is Yours, Lord, and You rule over all. We love you, Lord, because You first loved us. Thank you that You are forever the great I AM. We thank You this morning, Father, that we are Your heirs and joint heirs with Your beloved Son JESUS Christ. We appreciate that we are covenant people - bless Your holy name. We are not our own. We have been bought with a price - the precious blood of JESUS Christ. Thank you, Lord, that you are the GOD of all flesh.
Father, please lead us in the way everlasting. Teach us Your ways. We thank you, Lord, that you are sovereign and do whatsoever You please. Help us to steadfastly hunger and thirst after righteousness and to have souls that follow hard after You. Teach us to love, Lord, in ways that bring You joy, pleasure and delight. We purpose to fight the good fight of faith and to keep on Your full armor to quench all the fiery darts of the Devil. Help us, please, Lord, to be holy as You are holy.
Thank You, Lord - Amen.
What is the difference in these prayers?
ReplyDeleteThe first prayer is vague, and on the surface. The second prayer is deep, and goes to the heart of our relationship with our Lord, and Savior...
ReplyDeleteHi Julie -
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting.
Yes, I agree...
I don't believe God cares if we use eloquent words, as long as we are talking to Him. God looks at the heart.
ReplyDeleteThe first prayer is for somewhat immature Christians. It is about I, Me and Mine. Babies are ego-centric like that. That's okay -- for babies.
ReplyDeleteThe second prayer shows the impact of God's love and power. This prayer aims the grace of God at our own hearts. There is hope in heaven as a perspective. It also aims at God's priority of love.
Well said Tim. I'm not quite so eloquent with my words as that, but I do try to focus on the second type of prayer. I do at times pray for the surface stuff, but I am much more specific as to what I'm asking for, and I pray for specific things, and people. I pour out my heart like he were sitting next to me.
ReplyDeleteJulie, pouring your heart out to God is what I do as well. I will go out to a retreat to sing, cry and pray.
ReplyDeleteI can identify deeply with the old song, "In the Garden." Here's a copy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE4_tDFlJns&feature=related
Greetings -
ReplyDelete@Timothy - Thank you for posting that link to youtube, "In the Garden." It so blessed and ministered to me. I remember that song as a child...it evokes memories of my precious GOD loving mother. Just weeks ago, I was talking to a relative about that song and informed her that I could not recall much of the lyrics. She recited them...I was impressed at her memory of the words...she blessed me with the recitation...and then you post yesterday a link to the subject song.
THANK YOU, LORD!
Timothy I appreciate your sensitivity to our Lord's will....
Thank you Tim for that video of "In The Garden" I went to bed last night with parts of the lyrics going through my head. Beautiful song that touched my heart.
ReplyDelete