Heaping Up Empty Phrases to God (TMF:1236)

Monday, October 14, 2019
Peace to Live By: Heaping Up Empty Phrases to God (TMF:1236) - Daniel Litton
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       Jesus also talked about the fact that when we pray, we are not to heap up “empty phrases” to God in order to be heard by him. This, again, was a pagan custom during Jesus’ day, as Jesus tells us. The people who believed in other gods thought those gods would hear them if they just keep repeating and repeating things in their prayers. Jesus called this “vain repetitions.” In contrast, when we have a request for God, as Christians, we are believe that God cares about our need, even knowing it before we ask it, and we should believe that God will provide for us. So, while the pagan believed in a ‘work’ of repetitions to obtain his or her request, the Christian believer should just believe by using ‘faith’ that the request will be received in the future, when it is God’s will and we are not asking with a wrong motive, as James has told us. Sometimes we are to petition God for a certain request that we believe is his will, as Jesus told us to always pray and never give up (see Luke 18:1), but often times all it takes is one prayer (as we learned in Daniel chapter 10 a couple of weeks ago).