In the old Evangelical Days I would always hear, “Prayer is not asking God for stuff, its just talking to Him, having a relationship.” That fits with well with the American Evangelical idea that Christianity is having a personal relationship with God. (Never mind that those words are never found in the Bible!) In Evangelicalism prayer is a “two-way conversation,” speaking and listening for God to speak in your heart. While all of this sounds pious and nice, it’s not the Biblical teaching.
In the Bible, prayer is asking. Jesus outlines our prayers like this: “Ask, seek, knock.” We come to God because we lack, because we need, and a big part of our prayer is learning this.
Here’s Luther on this doctrine from Jacob’s prayer in Genesis 32.
We’ll dig into this today in the Worldwide Bible Class. We start live in about an hour (9a Central Time). Join us if you can! www.wolfmueller.co/bible.
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Prayer is Asking (& WWBC reminder)
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Christ is risen! Good morning!
In the old Evangelical Days I would always hear, “Prayer is not asking God for stuff, its just talking to Him, having a relationship.” That fits with well with the American Evangelical idea that Christianity is having a personal relationship with God. (Never mind that those words are never found in the Bible!) In Evangelicalism prayer is a “two-way conversation,” speaking and listening for God to speak in your heart. While all of this sounds pious and nice, it’s not the Biblical teaching.
In the Bible, prayer is asking. Jesus outlines our prayers like this: “Ask, seek, knock.” We come to God because we lack, because we need, and a big part of our prayer is learning this.
Here’s Luther on this doctrine from Jacob’s prayer in Genesis 32.
We’ll dig into this today in the Worldwide Bible Class. We start live in about an hour (9a Central Time). Join us if you can! www.wolfmueller.co/bible.
Christ is risen indeed!
PrBW