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by Pastor/Evangelist Greg Laurie
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
—Hebrews 4:16
I love praying with kids. They do their kid things that are so cute. Sometimes their prayers are heartfelt and so sincere, while at other times, they will be cheating or not praying at all.
We adults tend to attach a lot of emphasis to the verbiage that we use in prayer or to the length of our prayers, but God doesn't care about those things so much. He is not really interested in the eloquence of our prayers. And He certainly is not impressed by long prayers. In fact, the great prayers of the Bible are brief. I believe that our prayers in private should be long, while our prayers in public should be short. But the main thing is that we need to be praying.
So what is the objective of prayer? Is it to tell God something He doesn't know? Or is it to convince God to do something that He doesn't necessarily want to do? The answer is no. God knows all things, and God will do what He will do.
Then why pray? The value of prayer is that it keeps us in touch with God. Prayer should be thought of as a relationship between a father and child. We may think that God will give us everything that we need, for every situation, all at once. But if God were to give us all of His glorious gifts in one lump sum, there would be the danger of enjoying the gifts and forgetting the Giver.
God gives us what we need as we need it. This also keeps us dependent on Him, not unlike a child who receives an allowance from a parent.
In the same way, we need to come back to God each day, finding "grace to help in time of need."
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
—Hebrews 4:16
I love praying with kids. They do their kid things that are so cute. Sometimes their prayers are heartfelt and so sincere, while at other times, they will be cheating or not praying at all.
We adults tend to attach a lot of emphasis to the verbiage that we use in prayer or to the length of our prayers, but God doesn't care about those things so much. He is not really interested in the eloquence of our prayers. And He certainly is not impressed by long prayers. In fact, the great prayers of the Bible are brief. I believe that our prayers in private should be long, while our prayers in public should be short. But the main thing is that we need to be praying.
So what is the objective of prayer? Is it to tell God something He doesn't know? Or is it to convince God to do something that He doesn't necessarily want to do? The answer is no. God knows all things, and God will do what He will do.
Then why pray? The value of prayer is that it keeps us in touch with God. Prayer should be thought of as a relationship between a father and child. We may think that God will give us everything that we need, for every situation, all at once. But if God were to give us all of His glorious gifts in one lump sum, there would be the danger of enjoying the gifts and forgetting the Giver.
God gives us what we need as we need it. This also keeps us dependent on Him, not unlike a child who receives an allowance from a parent.
In the same way, we need to come back to God each day, finding "grace to help in time of need."