How to avoid "Fast Food" Prayers?
Have you ever thought, why can't I hear God's voice? Why is it that God seems quiet in my life?
Sometimes, the way we want to connect to Him does not allow Him to be connected to us. Many times, and I say this from experience, we are in a rush during our prayer time. We pray fast prayers that are more like a monologue than an actual conversation. Prayers without substance, routine prayers, easy prayers. "God bless my family," "God protect me from my enemies," "Give me the job I want," "Give me this or that," "Bless my food," etc. All those are good short prayers, but we need to go deep if we want God to go deep with us.
The Bible tells us in Matthew 6:33- "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." In other words, God is ready to give you all these "things" you need. He knows your needs better than you know your own needs, but He wants us to seek Him first. He wants to build a relationship with us, a real relationship.
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
-Matthew 6:33
Imagine you go to the grocery store, and you always see the same clerk at the store, He smiles and says, "Good Morning, How are you today? Did you find everything you needed?" and you answered with a smile, "Yes, everything good, thank you for asking!" Now you come to the same store next week and see the same clerk, and He asks the same question word for word, and you feel weird like this happened last week. But because you are nice, you answer again the same words you said last week, but this week a little less enthusiastically because you feel like this is a routine for him with all his clients, you don't feel a personal connection with Him. He doesn't really know you, and he might not even remember you from last week. He is just following the same prompts every day by greeting everyone, but not engaging in any personal conversation with anyone. He is just following a script.
That's how sometimes we talk to God. We follow a script. We repeat the same prayers, word for word, sometimes even rushing the moment because we have stuff to do right! He must understand! But He is there waiting patiently for us to have a conversation with Him rather than a monologue that you could be practicing in front of your mirror.
Fast Food, for many of us, means comfort. It is so easy to go grab a burger and stand in line for 5–10 minutes, but you don't have to do anything. You are hungry, you order, you get your food, and you satisfy your hunger. Easy right? But sometimes, we think God can answer our prayers like the fast food chain gives us our food.
But God needs to spend time with us. He knows us and knows our needs, but He wants us to know Him and have a personal relationship with Him, not what you hear about Him from others but what you learn when you spend time with Him alone. Our prayers should be more like when you are cooking homemade food. It takes time, you might have to download a recipe and follow each step by step carefully, spending maybe 30 minutes to 1 hour for your food to be ready. But when it's prepared, mmm, it's fresh, delicious, fulfilling, and brings a smile to everyone's face and your effort was rewarded.
ASK QUESTIONS:
Don't fall into the habit of praying "fast food" prayers if you want to go deeper in your relationship with God. He wants to know everything about you. You are His child!
Parents, when their kids come back from school, they often want to know EVERYTHING that happened to their kid that day. They ask questions, open-ended questions to receive an answer. God not only wants us to ask questions, but He wants us to tell Him everything about who we are. He wants to know about you. How was your day? What made you mad? Who made you smile? Do you have something that worries you? In what areas of your life do you need clarity? Do you need Him to clarify something He wrote in the bible?
Ask questions. A relationship with a person is built by getting to know them, asking questions, and spending quality time with them. That's exactly what God wants. Allow Him the time to show you amazing things. He is ready to reveal so many things to you if you just ask.
"Call to me, and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."
-Jeremiah 33:3
The Bible tells us in Jeremiah 33:3, "Call to me, and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." More than what we ask, more than the material stuff we think we need, He wants to reveal to us His mysteries and so much more! Isn't that amazing? That our God is so eager to teach us great and unsearchable things we do not know about? WOW! He only does this with those children who dare to pray deep prayers, who dare to ask Him for more, who are willing to spend time to know Him, to search Him, and to find Him.
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."
-Matthew 7:7
Do you dare to go deeper with God today? Do you dare to ask Him to show you great and unsearchable things? Make a change today in your prayers, and wait and see what He is about to show you.