Quote:
Originally Posted by Freedom
This quote of Nee also caught my attention. Nee makes two faulty assumptions: 1) Christians only pray simplistic or 'tiny' prayers and 2) There is something wrong with praying for the more trivial things.
I remember as I was growing up in the LC, we were always told that we need to develop a relationship with the Lord through prayer. However, those leading us would always come in and try to qualify things. They told us not to pray "help me" prayers, because the Lord doesn't want to help us, he wants to be our all. They told us not to pray for trivial things because it didn't advance God's economy. It thus left us in a state of wondering what we could pray for. One of the things that this resulted in is that we developed a tendency to try to come up with prayers that would 'impress' everyone, especially in large gatherings.
I am reminded of what Jesus said:
Matt 6:5-7 And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
The Bible would suggest that what some in the LC might call 'weighty' prayers are nothing more than vain prayers. I'm not saying that all such prayers are vain, however, it could be a lot more than people in the LC realize. I remember attending prayer meetings, we would pray for an hour or more - God's economy this, Lord's move that. Most of the time I had no clue what specifically anyone was praying for. But it did sound impressive.
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This is all so true. Lee condemns prayers where you bring your situation to the Lord and ask Him for help. He condemns "heal my son who is sick" prayers. There is a portion where Lee talks about coming to the Lord and waiting in silence and then tentatively asking for permission to pray, and then only praying what the Lord would like us to pray. While I do not dispute that respect for the Lord in prayer is a good thing, the sum total effect of hearing all these kinds of things was to shut my mouth from praying anything because there was nothing left and no way left to be able to pray, and left me waiting on a "now you are allowed to pray" from the Lord that never came.
I have come to appreciate more the "standard" Christian way of praying, say as a pastor ends his sermon by saying "let's pray" and then he prays with the utterance that helps the audience, as opposed to the prayer-cadence in the LC's followed by an amen after every sentence. What that type of prayer does is drags, or at least splits, the pray-er's focus to being on the saints around them rather than on the Lord Himself.
Having said that, I have not yet gone to a prayer meeting of a non-LC church, but will do so soon. I never found the LC way of praying helpful for me.
Regarding praying "tiny" prayers, I have heard it said (not in the LC of course) that God has everything to do with your life. If we think God is too busy for me, or that He only wants to hear the "big stuff", then we've actually shrunk Him down to only dealing with the big things in the world and not your small things that you spend your energy/life/money trying to hide from other people. The reality is, Jesus is the king who sees the needs of the people, empathizes with their weakness, stops to heal the pain of someone most of us wouldn't give a second glance to. The Lord WANTS us to bring everything, big and small, to Him.