Essays on Prayer by Robert Dean Steel

   Prayer is the most powerful force in the universe because God Himself backs prayer.  Prayer is not a monologue between you and God, it is a dialogue.  The problem with the modern western Christian is that prayer is self motivated and designed to pray for their basic human needs.  We pray for significance.  "Lord make me who I am in Christ."  In the past thirty years I have heard the phrase over and over again. "I know who I am in Christ."  The operative word here is, "Who I am."  When did we think is was about me or us?  The problem with most modern western Christians is that we suffer from "I" disease.  We forget that the vowel in sin is "I".  So our prayer time in general focuses on us and what we need.  Now most of us would never say that we view God as a sugar daddy or a slot machine.  Yet if we listened to our prayers there is a lot of "I" in them.  One time I was in a prayer meeting and I deliberately listened to the prayers of the people in the meeting, everyone myself included used a lot of "me" and "I" in our prayers. 
   The next human need is security.  We all pray that God will protect us from living in persecution.  Jesus in fact told us that suffering is part of the basic Christian lifestyle.  Now that does not mean that we should develop a martyr or victim mentality that is not healthy.  We should realize however that suffering and persecution comes because of our faith.  We can pray for strength, grace and the attitude of Christ as we going through it.  Our security is in Christ.  1 Cor 10:13 tells us that God will not allow us to tempted beyond we are able to endure but with the temptation, He will provide a means of escape.  God is able to help us in any situation and also to be content.
   The last area of human need that often motivates prayer is self worth.  We want to be valued and appreciated.  Nothing wrong with that but we must remember that self worth should be wrapped in doing the will of God.  Prayer is the vehicle in which this can happen.  In our dialogue with God He reveals His will and we have the opportunity to obey.  So never make you whole prayer time about you.  Make it about Him and others and you will be praying the will of God.