Thursday, December 11, 2008
A few weeks ago Steve talked through a part of James about being friends with the world. I was just reading the book "Desiring God" and one thing that John Piper said really struck me as interesting. In his book he is talking about how we were created to find happiness and joy in God alone and so our goal is to be Hedonists, but finding our pleasure in Jesus and not the world. This chapter was on prayer and how it is part of our Hedonistic lifestyle (in a good way):
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"But someone will say, "Yes, but not all prayers are prayers for God's name to be hallowed or for His kingdom to come. Many prayers are for food and clothing and protection and healing. Is this sort of praying not self-centered?"
It may be. James did condemn a certain kind of prayer. He said:
3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? (James 4:3-5, ESV)
So there is a kind of praying that is wrong because it makes a cuckold out of God. We use our Husband's generosity to hire prostitutes for private pleasures. These are startling words. James calls us an "adulterous people" if we pray like this.
He pictures the church as the wife of God. God has made us for Himself and has given Himself to us for our enjoyment. Therefore, it is adultery when we try to be "friends" with the world. If we seek from the world the pleasures we should seek in God, we are unfaithful to our marriage vows. And what's worse, when we go to our heavenly Husband and actually pray for the resources with which to commit adultery with the world, it is a very wicked thing. It is as though we would ask our husband for money to hire prostitutes to provide the pleasure we don't find in him!
So, yes there is a kind of praying that is self centered in an evil sense.
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I love John Piper.