Myth: God answers all our prayers; He says yes, no or wait.
God speaks to us all the time and He says a lot more than just yes, no or wait. This reduces God to less than the Magic 8 Ball which has 20 possible answers. If we only expect Him to say 'yes, no or wait', we'll miss all that He has to say to us.
Myth: Be careful what you pray for, you might get it.
This plus the "don't pray for patience" advice are prayer killers. It makes God sound like the divine Monkey Paw where all your ardent heart desires are answered in such horrific ways that it makes you wish you had never wished for anything at all. Not a good way to foster an intimate prayer life.
Myth: You know you're doing God's will if you meet with lots of opposition, setbacks and suffering.
Then how do we know when we're not doing God's will? When everything is just perfect and we're meeting with success after success?
A lot of needless suffering could be avoided with a good grounding in spiritual warfare. I have the privilege of being mentored by one of the best in this area. He has taught me prayers of protection and prayers against retaliation. He has taught me how to discern God's will and the necessity of keeping one foot on earth and one foot in heaven. Best of all, he taught me that when people hear God, they feel everything is urgent, imperative and must be done NOW because there is a timelessness in the spiritual realm. This is a common error and the source of much grief.
From a comment by Deb:
Another one that gets thrown in my face is "You can be sure that you're serving where God wants you if you really hate it; because God makes sure you have to depend on Him and can't possibly take any glory for yourself." Where do people get these ideas? Why would God waste all that effort to endow me with talents and a love of one kind of work/service and direct me to do something I have no heart or skills to carry out?
The essence of prayer is hearing God.
Posted by: Greg Neid | May 19, 2005 at 05:41 PM