Draw Near - PrayerSample

Don’t just pray to get your way. Think of a vending machine, one of the greatest inventions ever! You just put in some money, tell it what you want, and then out comes your snack! It’s quick, easy and doesn’t take much effort. Sometimes we can think about God that way as well. We pray prayers like, “God, I want a new scooter”, or “Please stop my brother from being so annoying”, or even “I’d like those awesome new shoes! Amen.”

But God never meant for our prayers to be vending machine requests! Praying is less about what we say and more about WHO we are talking to. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, the example He gave started off like this; Jesus said, “Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” When praying, the first thing Jesus did here was to honour God. The very next thing Jesus prayed was “your Kingdom come, your will be done” focussing on what God’s will is, not our own. We pray that God’s will is done here on earth, not our own way and what we want.

God created us to be close to Him and to have a relationship with Him. When we pray and bring our requests to God, it is because we know that He loves us and made us to know Himself. God isn’t just a big guy up in the sky who grants our wishes like a genie. He is our Heavenly Father who loves to listen to us and be in relationship with us.