Don’t Base Your Prayers on Feelings

By Lillian Penner

In our culture today, we have become me-centered, even in our prayer lives. It seems like we are encouraged to listen to our feelings, allowing our feelings to dictate our relationship with Jesus Christ. Our relationship with God cannot be based on our feelings. The foundation of our relationship must be our trust and faith in God.

 The purpose of prayer is not for God to give us what we want, but to open our hearts, focusing our minds on Him, yielding ourselves to His higher purpose.  As we open our hearts to God, his thoughts will become our hearts. 

Eugene Peterson writes in Answering God, “To pray by feelings is to be at the mercy of glands and weather and digestion. And there is no mercy in any of them . . . we need more than our wants and whims to grow in our relationship with God. We need revealed truth.” ₁

 When praying for your grandchildren ask God to shape their character according to His Word even if it requires some struggle. Ask God to give them a soft, teachable heart and a love for God’s Word so they will grow to be men and women of God who share the gospel with the world. 

  Pray! Magazine, Nov./Dec/ 2008 issue, page 32, published by The Navigators.

© 2010 Lillian Penner