Prayer Misconception #6: "God will get His message through to me even if I don't pray."

            Misconception Number 6:  But if God wants to get a message through to me, He’ll do it.  I don’t really have to put so much effort into praying and listening, do I? 

            While we may not hear His voice with our physical ears or see His presence go by as they did in the Bible times, God is still active in this world.  He is always speaking.  But . . . we only hear Him if we listen.  Matthew 11:15:  “He who has ears, let him hear.”

            Actually, I should say, more accurately, we only listen if we want to.  I think that many of us do hear Him, but we ignore it.  I do not think that He forces us to listen to His voice, but His message only gets through to those who tune their ears to listen.  (God waited for Moses, Samuel, and Isaiah to show their willingness to listen before He spoke to them.  He caught their attention, they tuned in to Him, and then He spoke.)  I want to look a little deeper into a passage that taught me about learning to listen for God’s voice and the process that we oftentimes have to go through to get there.  I wrote this when a friend was going through a hard time, to encourage her through the trial.  So there may be some parts that sound a little out-of-place.  But just go with it. 

Prayer Misconception #5: "Prayer is just talking, right?"

            Misconception Number 5:  Isn’t prayer just talking to God, as we were taught when we were young? 

            No.  Another important part of prayer is listening.  This, I believe, is a severely neglected skill - learning to hear the voice of God and the nudges of the Holy Spirit.  And this depends on our desire to hear, on whether or not we obey the nudges that we do get, and if we remain in Him and let His words remain in us.  This leads to powerful prayers. 

            And prayer is also about opening up our full lives and hearts to Him and to the Holy Spirit.  And this can only happen by honesty and transparency with ourselves and God.  If we close off any part of our hearts or lives from Him, we limit the influence and effect and healing that He can have in our lives.  We limit also our effectiveness.  Humility demands transparency.  Anything less is trying to pull the wool over God’s eyes.  And I think that if we are living this way, He may be forced to withdraw His presence from us until we see and admit the true conditions of our hearts and lives.  And prayer also, as I said, is about getting God’s Will done.

            So how do we “hear” God?  How does He speak to us?  There are a few ways that I know of, and there may be more.  But let me list some of the ways that I have experienced God’s messages:

Prayer Misconception #4: "Prayer is just 'name it and claim it'... right!?!"

            Misconception Number 4:  Prayer is sort of a name-it-and-claim-it thing, right?  Ask for what we want and get it? 

            I’ll admit, the “name it and claim it” mentality is very attractive.  And it sounds pretty Scriptural if you focus only on the verses that say, “Ask what you want and you’ll get it.”  But you have to take Scripture as a whole.  And when you do this, it becomes a much deeper, more complicated issue than just “ask and you get it.”  And it also becomes less about getting what we want - and more about getting what God wants. 

            I’ve noticed that a popular teaching out there is that because we are the children of the King, we should be living in royal abundance.  Yes, this is an attractive idea to us because we all want things: more things, better things, impressive things.  We don’t like to do without, to be in need, or to settle for less. 

            But this kind of teaching is off-base biblically, waaaayyyy off-base.  Because when you look at Scripture, you see that the purpose for everything is God’s glory, not our comfort or pleasure.  Even the Son’s purpose is to bring glory to the Father.       

            John 14:13:  “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.”

Prayer Misconception #3: "God always does whatever He wants so prayer doesn't make a difference."

            Misconception Number 3:  God will just do what He’s going to do, right?  Prayer doesn’t really have an effect if God is all-powerful and does what’s best in every situation.  So then our prayers must just be formalities, for our own benefit, or just for showing our dependence on Him, right?   

            Yes, prayer is a way to acknowledge our dependence on God and to draw close to Him.  But it is so much more powerful and critical than that.  It gets God’s Will done on earth.  And there are times when God’s Will doesn’t get done without it.  This is just the way that He has ordered the earth to work.

Prayer Misconception #2: "God already knows it all so I don't have to say it"

            Misconception Number 2:  God already knows all that we are going to say, so what is the point of saying it? 

            I think that a lot of us tend to look at prayer as just a mental exercise that we are supposed to go through because . . . well . . . because that’s what Christians do.  So we do it!  But somewhere deep down, it feels like a waste of time.  It feels like an unnecessary task because God already knows what we are thinking. 

            Deep down, we think things like, “Well, God knows what we need” … or “He knows I’m sorry” … or “He knows what I am going through and how to best handle it” … “so then why do I have to say it?  What’s the point?” 

Prayer Misconception #1: "It has to be just right"

            Misconception Number 1:  Prayer has to be “just right” or God won’t like it.  And that makes me freeze up because I don’t know what to say. 
            I have to say honestly that I used to believe this.  It wasn’t so much a spelled-out, conscious thought.  But it was always there in the back of mind, causing me to edit my prayers or to try to word them in pleasing, faithful-sounding ways. 
            I felt like there were so many things that Christians were supposed to be - faithful, joyful, trusting, not envious, not complaining, not doubtful, etc. - that I couldn’t just be honest about what I was feeling and thinking. 

Prayer Misconceptions: Intro

            I think that many of us in America nowadays do not see the immense value of prayer.  And so we do not engage in it like we should.  And this might be because of misconceptions we have about what it is and what it isn’t.  (Or it could be because we are preoccupied with self and being self-sufficient.)   
            In the next several posts, I want to look at some of the misconceptions that many of us have about prayer.  The things that prevent us from praying like we should.  And many of these come from my own experience.