Prayer: Laying Hold of God’s Willingness

"And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him."
– Matthew 6:7-8 –

In these verses the Lord teaches His disciples not to pray with mindless repetition, but with a restful confidence in the sovereignty and omniscience of God.

The Heart Matters More Than the Mouth

The pagans would pray to their deities by reciting particular phrases over and over again, thinking that their gods would reward them for their ritualistic devotion. This kind of thinking about prayer reduces it to a mechanical, heartless ritual. Here, however, Jesus teaches that simply repeating words without engaging your heart is not acceptable before God. In fact, our God has always been more concerned with the internal than with external.

• Psalm 69:30–31 – I will praise the name of God with song and magnify Him with thanksgiving. And it will please Yahweh better than an ox or a young bull with horns and hoofs.
• Hosea 6:6 – For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
• Isaiah 29:13 – This people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote…

(See also Psalm 51:16–17; Isa 1:11–15; Amos 5:21–24; Micah 6:6–8; Malachi 1:6–14.)   Continue at Mike Riccardi

The Sin of Insecurity

Barney struggles to raise his oversized purple head, weakened by the gradual loss of viewership in recent years. Once a formidable voice in children’s TV programming, he now grasps weakly at his friends, who stand quietly beside. He manages to seize a fistful of Elmo’s scruff and draws him close. “One thing you must never let a single child forget: ‘You are special.’” The falsetto-voiced monster puts a furry hand on Barney’s and turns to look at the others. All of them knew that a very important message had been entrusted to them. Of all moral lessons in children’s TV programming, this was to be foundational.

And if you notice, whenever kids shows step away from silly fun or situational problem solving and toward moral admonition, it is usually on this very topic: the importance of a positive self-image and the confidence that should result from it. And so, educational TV coaches us to think positively about everything from our hair color to our particular set of interests as the means of instilling confidence for living.

I am not advocating a low self image, of course. I am simply pointing out that insecurity seems to be the only thing appropriate for public correction. In fact, we could say that in the moral universe of children’s programming, insecurity is the chief sin. Why?

Before we attempt to answer that question, let me present another: I believe that God calls insecurity sin, too. But why?   Keep Reading...

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