I saw in the news today that the Church of England has published a couple of new prayers (Prayer On Being Made Redundant, Prayer For Those Remaining In The Workplace) for people to use who have been impacted by the current economic crisis.
At first I thought little of this but upon reflection I find this a bit disturbing. The RC church has long held the practice of telling its' members what to pray and I suppose the Anglican church has as well (since I have little contact with Anglicans, I am not really "up" on this).
When Jesus was asked to speak on the subject of prayer, He offered a template - a model for talking to God. He did not supply a stack of pre-printed, ready to submit prayers. He didn't supply a list of things that could be prayed for.
Prayer is a way of talking to God. It is not a formula or an incantation. There are no magic words that will force or coerce the desired results. If I dragged out a set speech or read from a list whenever I wanted to communicate with my wife, I suspect that (at the very least) she would quickly stop listening.
God likes to hear from His children. Take some time this week to spend with the Father in conversation.
blessings on your day
1 comment:
Amen. I've never been a big fan of preprinted prayers, but admit that I can see how some "newbies" can benefit from them.
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