Saturday, March 11, 2023

Relationship Comes Before Request

(Inside the wonderful Norjo Cafe in Monroe, the week it closed as the owners retired)

If I had a child who did not listen to my counsel and respond to my directives, I would not listen to their requests. If they asked for something, I would want to first talk about our relationship, and their noncompliance.

God has no use for the prayers
of the people who won't listen to him.

Proverbs 28:9 (The Message)

If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, 
even their prayers are detestable.

Proverbs 28:9 (NIV)

James 5:16 says, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Which would mean, the prayer of an unrighteous person is powerless and ineffective.

Which means, the prayer of a Moralistic Therapeutic Deist is powerless and ineffective. Because the God of Christian theism is not some big butler in the sky who exists for our gratification. 

God is a God of relationship. He is a loving Father, we are his children. Relationship with him comes before requesting of him.