Monday

I have been preaching on signs of discipleship that are in Bishop Schnase's book. I have talked about Risk taking mission and last Sunday focused on Radical hospitality and what Martha and Mary can teach us about that. This week continuing to follow the gospel of Luke, I will be talking about Intentional faith development with the Lord's prayer being part of that and the idea of being persistent in prayer. As I have begun looking at what I want to say this coming Sunday I wanted to share with you an interesting insight.

Last night I was channel surfing and came across Joel Olsteen. He was talking about prayer and since I was thinking about that I decided to listen. As he was talking, he was saying that we should have the faith to pray of things now and that releases our faith to allow God to respond. He was emphasizing that we should be more willing to do things now rather than future. Up to that point, I was agreeing with the concept. Where he lost me, was when he said that we should be praying for God to grant us prosperity or the new promotion now. In what I heard there was never the thought or desire to seek God's Will in our lives. It was all about what I want and not even what I need but what I want. Now he may have said something before that set this up but even so I find it to be bad theology that we should pray for prosperity and for our wants. We are called to lift up prayers for healing for others and ourselves, to celebrate blessings, to seek guidance in our lives, but always with the caveat of seeking God's Will.

I wanted to share this from The Renovare' Spiritual Formation Bible from the footnotes on pg 124-125 regarding prayer. "The pattern for prayer that Jesus gives his disciples is short on our wants and big on God's wants. Half of what Jesus tells us to do in prayer is worship God, keep him holy, and ask that his kingdom and his will take shape, not ours. God the Father looms large. For us, it is enough that we get what we need for spiritual and physical sustenance, and that we ground our days in asking for and receiving forgiveness, as will as calling for freedom from evil and all that pulls us toward wrong. It is a very bare bones sort of prayer compared to many of the ways we pray today. Jesus does back it up with a parable and some picturesque language that encourages us to persist in prayer, so that we may receive what we need (vv5-13). If we know how to give good gifts, God knows even more so how to give the Holy Spirit. But it is still a very basic and elemental affair. There is nothing here about material wealth or perfect health or things that get me more of me. Instead, it is about there being more of God."

The danger of the prosperity movement is how to explain if one does not get the promotion or becomes rich. Is it because one was not faithful enough? Is something wrong with me and God is punishing me? Jesus challenges this ancient belief about rewards and punishment. This is especially true in the gospel of John. We are called to pray and we are to persist in our prayers but let us first seek God's Will not ours.