{"id":5049,"date":"2009-06-04T12:31:45","date_gmt":"2009-06-04T12:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/a-brothers-wisdom-64.html"},"modified":"2009-06-04T12:31:45","modified_gmt":"2009-06-04T12:31:45","slug":"a-brothers-wisdom-64","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/a-brothers-wisdom-64.html","title":{"rendered":"A Brother’s Wisdom 64"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PrayerFell.jpg\"<\/span>I don’t think prayer is mechanical. That is, I don’t think if we “do” things right — as the right way, use the right formulae, etc — that we will get what we want. But James makes a mechanical point about prayer that we need to think about. Notice these words from James 4:1-3:<\/p>\n

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle You
\nwithin you?want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot
\nhave what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you
\ndo not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Here’s a “mechanical” point that we need to consider when it comes to prayer: there is a profound interconnectivity between our relations with humans and our relation with God.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n


\nIf our motives are to possess or dominate others, we can’t be connected
\nto God properly; if our desires and pleasures to have authority over
\nothers shape our prayers, we are not connected to God properly. I don’t
\nknow that is as simple as “get your motives right” or “get the right
\npleasures”. Instead, I’m wondering today if it is not more “when you
\nare in proper relations with those in the messianic community then your
\nprayers will be heard because you are in tune with what God is doing in
\nthis world.”<\/p>\n

It is far too easy for us to think about the Vertical and then to the Horizontal, as if being right with God makes us right with others. We might pursue this line of thinking today: the Horizontal shapes the Vertical as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t think prayer is mechanical. That is, I don’t think if we “do” things right — as the right way, use the right formulae, etc — that we will get what we want. But James makes a mechanical point about prayer that we need to think about. 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