Matthew 6.9-10, Luke 11.2.
All my life I’ve heard Christian prayer leaders instruct me that before we start asking God for things, it’s only proper to begin with praise. Tell God how great he is. How mighty. How awesome. Supposedly that’s how Jesus demonstrated we’re to start
This attitude reminds me way too much of the sycophantic prayer we find in
- CHAPLAIN. “Let us praise God. Oh Lord…”
- CONGREGATION. [ritually repeating] “Oh Lord…”
- CHAPLAIN. “Oooh you are so big!”
- CONGREGATION. “Oooh you are so big.”
- CHAPLAIN. “So absolutely huge!”
- CONGREGATION. “So absolutely huge.”
- CHAPLAIN. “Gosh, we’re all really impressed down here, I can tell you!”
- CONGREGATION. “Gosh, we're all really impressed down here, I can tell you.”
- CHAPLAIN. “Forgive us, O Lord, for this dreadful toadying.”
- CONGREGATION. “And bare-faced flattery.”
- CHAPLAIN. “But you are so strong and, well, just so super!”
- CONGREGATION. “Fantastic.”
The problem with it? It’s not what the Lord’s Prayer means… and to a large degree
Of course it’s wrong. Yet it’s what we see: Christians figuring the more they praise God, the better he thinks of them. Or as
In reality prayer requests are about
Likewise praise is about appreciating God, about reminding ourselves of his greatness. If you wanna do a lot of that, I direct you to Psalms. But the Lord’s Prayer doesn’t actually include praise—unless you’re using
And in that case it follows the examples shown in Psalms: The psalmists tended to pour out their heart to God first. Express their woes, state their problem, ask for help. Then—after God talked ’em down, or told them he’d take care of it—then they ended their prayers with praise and gratitude. Honest gratitude.