MISUSE OF PRAYERBy Cornelius R. Stam
Many Christian people fail to pray acceptably. They
indulge their wills, earnestly praying that God will lead;
yet all the while determined that He shall lead according to
their desires, even if contrary to His revealed will. Then,
when faced with the written Word, they say: "But I have
prayed much about it." They even challenge God, like the
young woman who justified herself for entering into an
unequal marriage vow by saying: "I asked the Lord if this
wasnt His will just to hinder it somehow." Such misuse of
prayer is worse than superstition; it is sacrilege, for the
young woman should have known -- probably did know --
that the written Word had already condemned what she
wanted, prayed about and got.
Then too, there is much superstition among God’s people
with respect to prayer. How readily some believers "feel
led," seek for "inner promptings" or listen for that "still
small voice" in answer to their prayers! They say: "The
Lord told me" this or that, or "The Spirit whispered to me"
or "I could just hear Him saying." When such remarks are
made to this writer he usually inquires further into the
details and invariably learns that no voice was heard at all,
but that the speaker merely took some feeling or impres-
sion to be, in some mystic way, a direction from the Lord.
God does speak to us through His Word, even when some
incident or circumstance emphasizes the truth of His Word,
but with the Word complete He no longer speaks to us by
visions or even by still small voices, and the instructed
believer will be careful not to depend upon "inner prompt-
ings," knowing that by nature "the heart is deceitful above
all things" (Jer. 17:9).
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