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- Apr 25, 2006
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Prayer (4)
'He shall call upon Me, and I will answer Him' Psalm 91:15
Okay, Bruce Almighty is mainly an excuse for a series of plastic-faced explosions from Jim Carrey, but there's some pretty good sermon fodder in there too. Like the bit about prayer. Bruce keeps hearing voices building up and building up. He discovers they are people's prayers waiting for an answer. He tries to attempt to answer them individually through email but finds he just can't keep up with the demand, until finally he sets his email to automatically respond to 'yes' for every request. Good idea, he thinks - everybody gets what they want. The film goes on to illustrate the pandemonium this care-free, couldn't-care-less, approach to prayer has. It makes an important point.
Prayer is not about having God as your own personal genie in a bottle. Prayer is about living in relationship with God. Prayer is a gift, not a duty. You may think having a boyfriend or girlfriend that always did exactly what you wanted would be a dream come true, yes? No: the intimacy of a relationship would be lost, because you'd have a slave, not a partner. Prayer is about getting close to God. Yes, sometimes He will give you what you want, but sometimes He won't. Sometimes it will seem like He's not even answering. God is your Father, not your genie, and the time you spend with Him is the point.
What now? Mull over today's reading with this verse: 'God's there, listening for all who pray, for all who pray and mean it' (Psalm 145:18 TM).
written by Bob Gass
'He shall call upon Me, and I will answer Him' Psalm 91:15
Okay, Bruce Almighty is mainly an excuse for a series of plastic-faced explosions from Jim Carrey, but there's some pretty good sermon fodder in there too. Like the bit about prayer. Bruce keeps hearing voices building up and building up. He discovers they are people's prayers waiting for an answer. He tries to attempt to answer them individually through email but finds he just can't keep up with the demand, until finally he sets his email to automatically respond to 'yes' for every request. Good idea, he thinks - everybody gets what they want. The film goes on to illustrate the pandemonium this care-free, couldn't-care-less, approach to prayer has. It makes an important point.
Prayer is not about having God as your own personal genie in a bottle. Prayer is about living in relationship with God. Prayer is a gift, not a duty. You may think having a boyfriend or girlfriend that always did exactly what you wanted would be a dream come true, yes? No: the intimacy of a relationship would be lost, because you'd have a slave, not a partner. Prayer is about getting close to God. Yes, sometimes He will give you what you want, but sometimes He won't. Sometimes it will seem like He's not even answering. God is your Father, not your genie, and the time you spend with Him is the point.
What now? Mull over today's reading with this verse: 'God's there, listening for all who pray, for all who pray and mean it' (Psalm 145:18 TM).
written by Bob Gass
