Prayer Requires Realness

1986

Number 10: Prayers must be real and not stilted. Now if you can imagine having a child that comes up to you once a day and has a stained glass, holy monotone and says, “My Father, I thank you for the generous bountiful allowance that you’ve given me,” or, “Thank you, my God or my Father, for the new toys,” or something like, “Father, I want to humbly ask you for the car keys.” “Father, please let me stay out to a late and appointed hour because all the other children in the neighborhood get to.” What I’m saying is that comes, it has to come, from a shallow relationship with God. You don’t talk to anybody like that that you love and care about. Now I believe there needs to be a deep reverence and submission to God. And yet, God really isn’t hearing a prayer that’s not real! He doesn’t hear those prayers. That’s the way the Pharisees prayed with the stained glass monotone or a tremor in their voice. And God wants people that are real. God wants people that are real.