prayer in the western world

Prayer has unfortunately lost a lot of its mooring in the American Christian church to reflect more of the consumer secular culture than the spiritual practice of those who follow Jesus. It has become an item to use to get what we want. It has become like a shopping list of items as though God does not know what is needed or how it is needed to be done.

We need to recover a sense of prayer that is more listening and more being open to what God would have us do rather than what we want God to do. God doesn’t answer prayer by the style of words or the number of prayers about any specific request. What God hopes is we will spend time in deep concern for all the pain of the world and we will lift up that which we know of and we will also seek to learn about and lift up those who are not part of our circle of friends and family or in our comfort zone. Then God hears our prayers not as personal self-centered requests but as deep spiritual transformation.