The Infamous Million Dollar Prayer

The destroyer of faith for thousands of years, this prayer may be responsible for more vacancies in Heaven than any other single thing. When new converts learn that the Father has chosen reverent prayer as the means to communicate with him sooner or later they come to the conclusion, if we can ask for anything from the Father why not just ask for a million dollars? When the Father's certified check is delivered I can just pack up all my troubles in my old kit bag and smile, smile, smile. Then for some reason the check never comes and they come to the conclusion that this whole faith thing must be bunk.

They might do better to look at this from the point of view of God the Father, if he handed them a million dollar check then that would be the last time he would see or hear from them again until all the money had been squandered. He would actually be handing them a one way ticket to "anywhere but near the Father". God loves his children very much and he does not hand out to many tickets like that.

The only proper contents of a prayer are these two things, praising the Father and thanking the Father. If you stick to these guidelines you now have truly learned the proper way to pray. My goodness, where does receiving all the goodies come in? If the relationship that you are trying to build with the Father is based on getting stuff guess what, he won't be giving you anything. That kind of puts a damper on the whole thing doesn't it? Well maybe yes and maybe no, just what is the real underlying reason for you praying? That is a question most of us really don't want to explore to deeply, it may reveal a little blackness in our soul that we prefer not to think to much about. On the other hand, God is responsible for your daily provisions and he is always willing to make sure that you have enough. Enough being the key word, give a human being more than enough and the exact opposite of what God wants will occur, you will almost always stop earnestly seeking communion with the Father. You should be aware that the only reason the Father created human beings in the first place is for his pleasure and to have fellowship with them, you can save yourself a lot of time by understanding this entirely. So if your secret goal is to receive a gold mine, you can rest assured that is never going to be in the cards.

Repeated over and over in the bible is that one of the Father's biggest complaints is that his children are "stiff necked" (Exodus 32:9), in other words that they are far too concerned with their own personal business and any real concern or desire for true intimacy with God was not in them. Jesus said "these people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me" (Matthew 15:8), in the rituals of their prayers they may have looked up to Heaven but the Father judges by what is in your heart. By saying that they were "stiff necked" he was saying that they were just repeating the same words over and over and in their heart they were really only interested in their own affairs. What this illustrates is that God has a hard enough time keeping the attention of his children and it is not too likely that he is going to do anything to make intimacy with him even more difficult. The Father is not Santa Claus, he already knows what your needs are and he will provide for all your needs without you having to ask him about it:

"So remember, your Father already knows what your needs are". (Matthew 6:8)

Your wants and desires are a completely different matter however, that is a pail with no bottom, there is no way to ever fill that up.

If you are going to base your faith on whether God fills up your bottomless pail or not, guess what the answer will be? 

"Request prayers" or asking for things is really a "veiled complaint". You ask God "please give me a new car". But he hears a complaint. He hears "the car that you have already given me is a piece of junk, you are not taking care of me very well".

Make him happy. Just thank him and tell him how wonderful this world that he has given us is. That makes him feel good. Request prayers make him cringe. How do you feel when your wife starts asking for a new house or if you can find a way to make more money? You cringe. As does he.

You are laying a "guilt trip" on God the Father himself. You are making him feel bad. Can you imagine that? He comes closer to hear your quiet intimate prayer of thanks and praise and instead you give him a "wish list for Santa Claus". What a horror show for him. He likes you, you pray, but you hurt him terribly when he comes near.

He is thinking that you have come to thank him or offer praise about this wonderful world that he has given you and instead you sock him in the eye when he draws close enough for you to do it. It is like trying to kiss a rattlesnake for him to hear a prayer from you that makes him feel bad like that. Soon he will avoid all close contact with you and your guilt trips. You actually hurt God himself. Way to go. How unsavory a "request prayer" is. If God cries it would be because of all the "material request prayers" asking for things that he receives. They are the worst. And they are not biblical. He already knows what your needs are, save the rehashing.

Try using "reverse psychology" in your prayers, never ask for anything. The Father just may be thankful enough for that to reward you with what you secretly desire. But only if you keep it a secret. Don't worry that your secret desires will never even be known by him because you kept your mouth shut and will therefore be lost, he knows your every thought since the day you were born, he will not miss it. Reverse psychology and maturity in your praying habits will one day pay off big for you.

And anyway he has the habit of not giving you the material things that you ask for as punishment for making him feel bad. You will shoot yourself in the foot for anything that you ask for. Don't ask, have some faith that he knows your desires already and then as a reward you may actually get it. That is the only way that will work. Reverse psychology. Just offer thanks and praise to him, that is all.

The way it works is that the less faith that you have the more you tend to think that you have to ask God for things, the more faith that you have the less things that you feel that you have to ask the Father for. When you get to perfect faith you become smart enough to stop asking for things or thinking that you have to inform God about your pressing needs or your present situation, you come to the understanding that God is already 100% aware of each and every detail of your life. Then you limit your prayers to praising and thanking the Father only. You have to become mature enough to know to allow the Father to take care of your provisions on his timetable.

Just thank him.