Praying For or Praying About

I remember many moons ago, my young daughter leaned over in the pew and asked me, “Was He praying or preaching?” It was a rather good question. The fellow had been leading a prayer in service but it wasn’t really one. His statements were more indictments, his lines were more telling than asking, and his attitude was more ‘let me tell you how it is’ than “let me ask of you”.

It wasn’t the first or last time I’ve been involved in a prayer like that. I say involved because some I pray like that. More focused on the me and less on the Him. Much like the Pharisee in Luke 18:9-10, I can tell you all about me and all about them, show you all my goodness and why they are all wrong. I pray for my enemies, how God should smite them, and how unfair it is in how they treat me.

That however is praying about them, not for them. Now don’t get me wrong, prayer is a place where we can lay our hurt, our fear, our frustration before God. Yet we never need to think that is all we do. Jesus commanded us to pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44). In 1 Peter 3:9 we read, “not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead”. Romans 12:14 says “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”

If in attempting to pray we are doing more proclaiming about others and less prayerful requests for them, we might just be doing the wrong thing. A prayer that sees our own flaws and seeks the Lord's help for others is an effective one that does much (James 5:16). A prayer about me and about them is one that doesn’t do much.

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