Page 2 of 2In God we trust?
Look back at your last five prayers one more time. Do you really need God to act or are you just praying for things because you're supposed to? It's often difficult to tell if our prayers are genuine or not on the surface. Deciphering who it is we trust takes delving beyond the words we say to the motivation behind them. For example, thanking God for his provision before a meal could be a heartfelt expression of gratitude or a meaningless platitude we've learned to utter before digging in.
Every night before my children hop into bed, we pray together as a family. A number of months back, our son was struggling with nightmares. He would wake up screaming multiple times each night. It got to the point that he was afraid to go to bed because the nightmares came so frequently. During our nightly prayer times, we ask our children if they want to pray, and our son started praying that God would keep him from having bad dreams. He's only three, but he really believed God would take them away—and God did. He prayed for something he knew only God had the power to do. As time passed, so did the nightmares. We have continued praying our children will have good dreams each night, and there are times I find myself praying this while silently thinking it doesn't really matter anymore. I even believe the habit of praying for good dreams is what will ensure the continued absence of nightmares—not that God will act, but that my words will permeate our children's consciousness and produce good dreams. An honest prayer asking for God's intervention has turned into something much more akin to superstition. The same prayer can be an indicator of great faith in God or a lack of faith in him—it all depends on our motivation.
So this game probably hasn't rivaled the wild excitement of Monopoly or the intellectual stimulation of Trivial Pursuit, but hopefully it does more to move us toward a God-honoring life of prayer. And that's not a game.
