Continued from yesterday.
This habit of attributing “prayer” to something we might think about or something that is nothing more than an empty response to someones situation becomes a form of self deception. If anything at all, what probably happens is the Christian is presented news about a situation or problem – they respond with the prayer, “Dear God, I don’t know what to do about that” and then they proceed to do or say whatever occurs to them. Then, when asked about their response, why they did/said that/etc, “Well, I prayed about it”.
How often have you heard someone say, “I prayed about it” as an explanation for their actions or attitude?
We make a multitude of decisions everyday. Some good, some bad. Some inconsequential, some are very significant and will affect us and others for a lifetime. This post is not about your decision making process, rather, your defence of your decision.
Very often you will decide something based on a combination of factors and numerous influences will come into play. However, if you’re a Christian, there’s a certain language that gets used when telling others about your decisions that gives a better impression then simply saying, “This is what I decided”.
The reason I said above, you are deceiving yourself is that you assume that your act of prayer is some sort of equivalent to waving a magic wand and making everything you do perfectly ok. It’s a little bit like those old computer arcade games where your character eats a invincibility pill and can’t be killed or damaged for a few seconds until the effects of the pill wear off. The Christian assumes, because I have prayed, I can’t possibly be wrong about this.
Be very careful. If you haven’t prayed, you are lying to say you did. If you did pray (long, short or otherwise) you could be co-opting God into your bad decision. You are still a sinner and you are not immune to mistakes, errors in judgment and outright wrong thinking. Don’t get me wrong, you should still pray! But it should be a habit of life, not a one off attempt to blame God for your life.
It is better for you to say instead, “I prayed about this and here is what I decided to do”. Then be prepared that one way God might answer your prayer is for scripture to show you or someone else to tell you that you are dead wrong about your decision. When that happens, stop what you are doing, right there and then, bow your head and pray on the spot and ask God to have mercy on you, grant you repentance and give you the courage to do what is right.
