Praying in a way pleasing to myself and not God
Once again, Challies writes on a topic that really hits home with me: Selfish prayer. Prayer is something that I have a hard time doing in a way that I feel is pleasing to God. If I recount the typical day, I pray maybe two or three times.
One of the times I typically pray is before I begin my quiet time. In that time, I praise God for who He is and what He does. Sometimes (but sadly, not always), I move to asking for forgiveness of my sins. I remember when a pastor once explained to the congregation how essential it is for us to prepare our hearts before the Lord when we pray. This is an essential step and yet so often left out by me. Then it is time to move on to me! I mean, after all, prayer is all about me asking God for things, right? Yeah, right. While I know better, the evidence of my prayer life would shout much louder than my words right now. I will spend a bit of time asking for Him to help change me and give me a heart that searches after Him. I ask for wisdom from His Word — I ask that He helps me understand what I am about to read and that I really learn from it. At this point, one of two things happens: 1) I start to lose focus and begin tinkering with something (pen, paper, anything around) or 2) I close the prayer and move on. Don’t get me wrong — I am a firm believer that everyone should pray before beginning quiet time and ask for clarity and inspiration from the Spirit; however, prayer should not end there.
Another time I will typically pray during the day is when I close my quiet time. This time is even worse than the previous. What do I do? Close in prayer thanking God for His Word, and sometimes going over what I previously read. More Godly wisdom from one of the elders at my church commented that when we read God’s Word, we should pray back to Him what we “hear”. Why? Because we are conversing with the Lord Almighty. Just like any conversation, it is important that both people understand what the other is saying. Don’t make assumptions and then walk away thinking you understood what they were saying when they were trying to tell you something completely different. Typical communication issues, right? God is perfect but we are fallible and will misrepresent what we hear because of our preconceived ideas and notions.
On my “best” days, I will pray about people close to me, people I don’t know, situational assistance, etc. Of course, my best day’s are probably once a month. Certainly not what I believe God expects or desires from me.
A comment on Challies blog I think hit home with me the most, however. The author, who goes by simply “D”, commented:
Consider prayer as your child asking for something. Most of the time it revolves around himself/herself. Dad, can I have a pony, an Xbox, and motorcycle. If they persist, you sometimes give in.
But when your little child looks beyond his or her own needs and asks you to help others, or asks to spend time with you or go fishing, doesn’t it simply warm your heart?
God does give good gifts, but as we grow, we look at others and at God with increased love and our prayers follow our heart. Read pauls prayers for the churches and for himself. His prayers were focused on increased love, grace, and peace.
How true and how this hits home!! I think this will stand out in my mind more than nearly everything else as I think about my next prayer.
John Piper suggests that perhaps we should pray for ourselves and then move outward in concentric circles… pray for your family, your church, your neighborhood, your state, country, etc. The other key is to pray Scripture — God’s Word. Yeah, that would be ideal, wouldn’t it? There is another point for me to work on! 
Another great resource that John Piper shares with us is how to pray for the pastoral staff. The lessons from this article apply to all prayer and should be used by everyone.
