Tonight at smallgroup we watched the first part of Louie Giglio's Prayer:a remix and it was great. It really really challenged me by pointing out some things that I already knew were true, and others I hadn't ever really thought about. In the series he tries to address some of the common catchphrases of prayer and why they suck and the first part covered a big one: "bless me."
"Bless me" (and its associated family of phrases: "bless us", "bless this mission thing we're doing" etc.) has a way of constantly cropping up in my prayers to the point that it becomes meaningless. I'm constantly praying to be blessed when God has already poured out his blessing in full upon me.
Ephesians 1:3 - Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Christ is the fulfilment of the blessings promised in the Old Testament. Louie's point was that no one in the New Testament ever prayed for blessing, rather they thanked Christ for those that they had already received and prayed to be used. I don't do that enough. I don't think that he was trying to say we shouldn't ask God for help day to day. Because I'm still going to do that. But we need to stop thinking about ourselves and realise that WE ALREADY HAVE BEEN BLESSED. Instead of praying that God will bless me on my trip to... Florida, I should instead pray that God will use me to bless and glorify him on my trip. Something to think about. I don't want to pray catchphrases anymore.
amen
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