Lies about prayer and about God

Onisim Moisa 13.03.18

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There are many lies about prayer among believers and non-believers too. And I know that because I had to deal with many of them over the time. I want to share with you a couple of lies I believe are common for many of us.

I grew up in a solid Christian family. Moreover, my parents are God-fearing people who love God, and they did teach us (me and my brothers) the ways of the Lord. And I can say that growing up in a Baptist Church gave me an excellent biblical foundation for life and for knowing what is right and what is wrong. However, just like any denomination probably, the Baptist denomination will emphasize certain things at the expense of others.

However, my mother (as well as my wife) comes from a Pentecostal Church. Therefore, as children, whenever my brothers and I did visit our grand-parents from my mother’s side, we used to attend the Pentecostal Church. And one of the differences between Baptists and Pentecostals is in the way they pray when they gather together as a congregation. In a Baptist Church (at least in Romania), people pray with a loud voice one after the other, and the rest of the Congregation says amen. However, in a Pentecostal Church (again, at least this is the custom in Romania) people pray with a loud voice, all the same time. And the funny thing is that all of them— Baptists and Pentecostals— claim to pray in the right and biblical way!

In my opinion, both ways are Biblical, and both ways are good. The Pentecostals probably use Acts 4:24 or Acts 12:12 to endorse their view about how to pray in a group. However, the Baptists will look at the same scriptures and believe the first Christians prayed one by one, and not all at the same time. And the truth is the text allows you to interpret how to pray, both ways.

The problem arises when one group believes that only them hold the truth. And that can lead to pride, slander, and manipulation, just to name a few. Moreover, that can lead people into believing lies about prayer and the way prayer should be. And that is only one minor lie about prayer.

I want to share with you some common lies about prayer among believers:

1. Lies about God

This can be a big one. And this lie can say something like ‘God does not care about you.’ And many Bible scholars believe that the relationship we had with our earthly father did influence how we see God the Father. Moreover, that implies, for example, that if we had a distant or cold relationship with our earthly father, we tend to see God the Father as distant and cold. And we tend to look at Him as a God who does not involve Himself in the lives of His children.

Moreover, if we had a father who traveled a lot and was busy with work or the ministry, we tend to see God the Father in the same way. A God who does not have time for us, who is busy with others, which is more interested in other people than in us. And if we had a father who was often angry or loved us only when we did perform well at school, for example, we tend to see God similarly. We tend to look at God the Father as being angry if we do not pray or if we do not pray five hours a day. And we might just develop a prayer life out of the wrong motivations.

The truth of the matter is that God is good. And our heavenly Father is a good Father. And He is so different than our earthly fathers.

So we have come to know and trust in the love that God has for us. God is love. Now whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  1 John 4:16

2. Lies about yourself

These can be: ‘I am a sinner, and I cannot pray to a Holy God’ or ‘I am not important to God’. Or the lie that says something like ‘you prayed for so long for the salvation of your family then probably it is not God’s will for them to be saved’ or ‘God does not love you that’s why He is not listening to your prayers.’

Let me speak truth over your life: God loves you, and you are important to Him! And you are so important that God sent Jesus to die for you! Yes, for you! And He wants your family to be saved, according to Ezekiel 33:11 and John 3:16. Furthermore, because you are important to Him, then your prayers are important to Him too! And He listens to your prayers and answers them, in His time and way.

3. More lies about prayer

Other may believe prayer is not relevant because it changes nothing. Or that you have better things to do and cannot waste time praying. And I will stop here, even though there are many more.

When we do spend time in prayer, we are not wasting time but are investing our time. And we invite God into our reality to change it and have His way.

There are many lies about prayer. Moreover, I was reading the other days an article about prayer. And in that article, the writer was talking about his friend who was injured in a car accident. And He wrote on his blog that he would keep his friend in his prayers [the writer was not a believer]. However, the comments to his statement about prayer were not welcomed by many of his readers, because many of them wrote things like:

Doctors and nurses save lives, not prayer. We all know God isn’t real…Prayer is utterly worthless…thank the surgeons and modern medicine. Your magical sky fairy had nothing to do with it. I assure you…A claim that prayer heals is dangerous. It results in needless deaths every year around the globe.

What can we do?

Satan manages to hinder many people to pray, with his lies. Lies about God or ourselves, or lies about how we should pray, who is praying correctly, what to pray, when to pray, etc.

However, according to my understanding, prayer is a conversation between my heavenly Father and me. And with my Father, I can talk about anything, anytime, and anywhere.

How about we all pray right now and ask the help of the Holy Spirit to forsake all the lies of the enemy in our lives about prayer? Let us repent of them and embrace the truth. And if we cannot accept the truth, at least let us talk with God about this and ask for help and power and wisdom to do that. And if we ask anything in the Name of Jesus, He will do it!

Do you agree?

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Onisim Moisa

I am a blogger, writer, pastor, Director of Zion Romania Bible School, husband to Olguta, a father and, most importantly, a child of God. I also completed my studies at the King’s University where I earned a B.A. in Theology with a concentration in Messianic Jewish Studies. I love Israel and I love the ‘Jewishness’ of the Bible.