31 (more) Coffee Break Messages – Peter Barfoot
Merely Mouthed Prayers
I'm sure that you've heard it, because almost every Christian says it. I've said it myself. But I've made up my mind that I'll stop saying it, because it annoys me when I hear it, and it annoys me even more when I say it myself.
"Just."
Not as in "Just you wait!" or "Just say the word" but in the following, fairly typical prayer:
"Lord, we just come to you to ask you to just answer our prayers, so that we may just see people saved..."
I'm sure you agree that it's about time we removed from our prayers this verbal apology for intruding into God's presence. But we can't do it by just not saying just. (Just try.)
But don't worry. I've discovered that we can replace the beggarly "J" word with "merely", which has pretty much the same meaning. We just (oops!) pray like this: "Lord, we merely come to you to merely ask you to answer our prayers so that we may merely—"
Enough! Appalled by this obsequious approach to the glorious Throne of God, where our needs can be met
abundantly, we are now ready to drop this trifling, insignificant, scant, negligible, mundane, nothing-else-but, nothing-more-than, cringingly-apologetic, totally unworthy expression from our prayers!
We are believers, not beggars. We may bow our knees, but we don't grovel. We lift up holy hands, not sweaty palms. We are saved by grace, not by the skin of our teeth. We don't need to use paltry words when we pray. How can we "come boldly to the throne of grace" with merely mouthed prayers? We ask; we don't "just" ask. We pray, we don't "just" pray. Leave those merely mouthed prayers to mealy-mouthed unbelievers!
