The Importance Of Your Prayer
Don't measure the importance of your prayer by comparing it with someone else's "more important" request. Instead, compare it to the attention span of the ONE whom you're praying to. God doesn't take prayers one at a time in order of importance because for one: time isn't a factor with God because He exists outside time and two: the importance of each prayer is determined by the value God Himself has placed upon His children. For God, the value and importance of His kiddos is so high that He went to the cross Himself to die for His children and according to Luke 12:6-7, He numbers the very hairs of our head. Not only that, but according to Psalm 56:8, He even counts all our tears and saves them in a bottle.
Sometimes, we place too much of a symbolic factor upon words we find in the Bible, when it wouldn't surprise me to one day find out that for every tear I've cried, as it evaporated off of my face, it appeared upon God's loving hands and placed in a bottle with my name on it. These are not the actions of a God who doesn't care but the actions of an almost obsessive God who's so intimately watching over the smallest details of our lives that his own measurements of what's important and what's not important would probably surprise us. No God who numbers the hairs of your head and puts all your tears in a bottle would ever think that anything you have to say or ask is "unimportant".
When I posted this little scribble note at facebook some time ago and one of my friends posted a comment saying, "And also pray in your own words, the way you would talk to someone else. I think too many people think they have to pray a certain way, use certain lingo and try to sound like the Bible. God doesn't require that. It does not make it more "important" to sound like the Bible when speaking and I think it puts you on a more personal level with God if you speak as if you normally would as if He were right in front of you. Basically: pray sincerely and don't try to work on making it "sound elaborate or fluffy". God appreciates that!"
She was right! Jesus said, "When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who use vain repetitions, heaping up phrases, repeating the same ones over and over as the heathen do, for they think they will be heard for their much speaking." Being honest and open before God is a form of boldness that is a privilege we've been granted for those of us who belong to Christ. He's no longer our judge, but our loving Father. We're his little kiddos. We don't have to prove anything to Him.
Besides, according to Hebrews 4:13-16, there isn't anything in our heart that's hidden from Him anyway, so we might as well be honest in prayer. Fortunately, the One to Whom we pray is someone Who understands us exactly where we are, what we're feeling, why we're feeling it, and why it comes out in the words we use when we pray. More than that, according to Romans 8:26-27, the Holy Spirit takes the whole of our prayers, both the spoken word that we say, and the whole meaning behind it that's expressed in our hearts, and then He takes it to the Father and fully interprets our whole prayer to His ears, using words, groanings, yearnings, vocabulary and facial expressions that better speak on our behalf than our own language can produce. It's a wonderful comfort to know that whenever I pray, regardless of how it comes out, I have no reason to fear that God might possibly misunderstand my prayer, or not feel the full weight of my request or supplication.
Sometimes, we place too much of a symbolic factor upon words we find in the Bible, when it wouldn't surprise me to one day find out that for every tear I've cried, as it evaporated off of my face, it appeared upon God's loving hands and placed in a bottle with my name on it. These are not the actions of a God who doesn't care but the actions of an almost obsessive God who's so intimately watching over the smallest details of our lives that his own measurements of what's important and what's not important would probably surprise us. No God who numbers the hairs of your head and puts all your tears in a bottle would ever think that anything you have to say or ask is "unimportant".
When I posted this little scribble note at facebook some time ago and one of my friends posted a comment saying, "And also pray in your own words, the way you would talk to someone else. I think too many people think they have to pray a certain way, use certain lingo and try to sound like the Bible. God doesn't require that. It does not make it more "important" to sound like the Bible when speaking and I think it puts you on a more personal level with God if you speak as if you normally would as if He were right in front of you. Basically: pray sincerely and don't try to work on making it "sound elaborate or fluffy". God appreciates that!"
She was right! Jesus said, "When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who use vain repetitions, heaping up phrases, repeating the same ones over and over as the heathen do, for they think they will be heard for their much speaking." Being honest and open before God is a form of boldness that is a privilege we've been granted for those of us who belong to Christ. He's no longer our judge, but our loving Father. We're his little kiddos. We don't have to prove anything to Him.
Besides, according to Hebrews 4:13-16, there isn't anything in our heart that's hidden from Him anyway, so we might as well be honest in prayer. Fortunately, the One to Whom we pray is someone Who understands us exactly where we are, what we're feeling, why we're feeling it, and why it comes out in the words we use when we pray. More than that, according to Romans 8:26-27, the Holy Spirit takes the whole of our prayers, both the spoken word that we say, and the whole meaning behind it that's expressed in our hearts, and then He takes it to the Father and fully interprets our whole prayer to His ears, using words, groanings, yearnings, vocabulary and facial expressions that better speak on our behalf than our own language can produce. It's a wonderful comfort to know that whenever I pray, regardless of how it comes out, I have no reason to fear that God might possibly misunderstand my prayer, or not feel the full weight of my request or supplication.
