Rabbit rabbit rabbit!

"When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. Don't be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” Matt 6: 7-8

Jesus is so politically insensitive that our courteously accepting sensibility can easily be shaken by his words. Here Jesus dismisses the repetitive prayers of other religions [and even our own] as babble!

As we allow Jesus inflammatory words sink in it causes us to question our views on how prayer works. So what do we think prayer does? Do our prayers awaken God to our needs? As though God may overlook us or forget us if we don’t remind Him of our needs? The absurdity of this notion reminds me of the humorous taunts uttered on another hillside by Elijah.

No, our prayers do not awaken God to our needs, they awaken us to God’s provision!

Far too much of my time is wasted in prayer trying to awaken God when He is already awake and aware of my needs and acting to meet them! In fact I can be so consumed by ‘please here me’ prayers that I fail to notice God’s provision for me or what He has to say to me. I may be surrounded by the thunder of circumstances but there is the need for me to hear that ‘still small voice’ [not a timid voice but an intimate and empowering whisper].

I feel ten feet tall, able to conquer the world, when I hear loving words whispered intimately in my ear by my wife. I could be unstoppable if I would allow God to whisper, with an even deeper intimacy, into my heart!

It’s time to allow ourselves to be awaked in our prayers to God’s [earth shattering] whisper.