Popcorn prayers

“Let’s all pray popcorn prayers,” the preacher said at prayer meeting one evening. That was the first time I had ever heard that expression so I asked, “What are popcorn prayers?” He politely responded that popcorn prayers are when you go around the room and everybody prays a sentence prayer. I immediately made the connection: small and without substance.

Later I asked why he chosen to pray these non-prayers. I was told it was because we had a number of new believers who did not know how to pray and he did not want them to be overwhelmed or intimidated by people praying longer prayers.

Like so many things we do, that sentiment sounds good but has disastrous results: we end up with people addicted to popcorn. In church after church across America we have people who claim to have been Christians for years who could not pray their way out of a paper bag.

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’ And he said unto them, ‘When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.’” (Luke 11:1-2). Today's churchmen would do well to follow Jesus’ example. Instead, when their disciples come to them wanting to learn how to pray they say, “Just pray a popcorn prayer.”

Popcorn prayers are not prayers at all. They are brainless mutterings. They go against the whole nature of prayer, which is to pour your heart out to God. Now, I have nothing against short prayers. The shortest prayer recorded in the Bible was only three words long, both in the Greek and in English. That prayer was Peter’s cry to Jesus after Jesus had commanded Peter to come to him on the water: “Lord, save me.” That was a real prayer. It was from the heart. It was sincere. It had pathos. It was direct. It was a cry of distress to God.

Enter the average American church today and listen to the praying. It is weak and anemic. It is often inane and wandering, little more than pious words strung together with no thought of what is coming next. If we talked to our Congressman like that we would get ushered out of his office hastily, yet we come before the Sovereign Lord of all the universe and blather.

The way to teach new and immature believers how to pray is not using popcorn prayers. The way to teach new and immature believers how to pray is to follow the example of the Master pray-er. But before we can teach others how to pray we must first learn at the Master’s feet ourselves. Weak prayers come from weak pray-ers. Weak prayers are symptomatic of a careless and distant walk with God.

Sure, new believers may feel uncomfortable praying and should not be forced to run before they learn to walk. New believers need mature examples to follow. This is no less true in the school of prayer than in any other discipline. Pastors: give them meat, not popcorn.

God Won't Make You Do What You Don't Want to Do

“God is a gentleman and won’t make you do anything you do not want to do.” This is the quote I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post. I considered in that post the first portion of the quote,; viz, God is a gentleman. Today I want to address the latter clause: “and won’t make you do anything you do not want to do.”

Again, we must examine the statement in the light of the Scriptures. What does the Bible have to say about that? Does the Bible make any direct statements supporting that quote? Does it allude to the possibility of it being true? Does it make any direct statements to the contrary? Does it allude to the possibility of it being false?

In yesterday’s blog I presented evidence that God is not a gentleman and, more than that, not always gentle. Today I will show that the second part of the quote is just as false.

Let us start with the book of beginnings, Genesis. In the first chapter of Genesis God created Adam and Eve. Did He consult with them and get their permission to bring them into existence? Did God consult with you and ask if you wished to be born? When Adam sinned and fell from grace, did God commiserate with him about leaving the Garden? Did He not summarily expel them? Did He ask Eve if she would like to endure agony during childbirth? Did He ask Adam if he’d like to pull weeds the rest of his life?

We look a little farther in Scripture and we come across the prophet Jonah. “Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me,” (Jonah 1:1-2)
Did God make Jonah go to Ninevah? You may answer, “No,” and you would be correct. God expects His people to obey Him. Did Jonah go? Sure, after God made him willing to go. Did Jonah do what he did not want to do? He sure did.

Now, let’s go to our day and age to people like you and me. Does God make us do things we do not want to do? He certainly does. Does anyone you know want to go through the torture of cancer? No one in their right mind would. Yet how many people experience the debilitating diseases of cancer? This is done against our will.

And how about death? All of us are bound to die. Just the other day a young man of my acquaintance died. He was having fun, living life to the fullest. His recreation was innocent enough yet it led to his demise. He had no desire to die. He had no anticipation of death. He did not know that his life would be required of him. He left behind a beautiful wife and an infant son. This was not what he wanted. God made him do what he did not want to do.

We forget that God is sovereign. He owns us. “Look, every life belongs to Me,” God says to the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 18:4). God owns us because He made us; He is our Creator. As our Sovereign, God can and often does make us do what we do not want to do. Sometimes God gives us the option of disobeying Him, as He did with Jonah, but makes us pay through the nose (or the whale’s belly) for our disobedience. In the end, God will have the final say, rewarding us for what we have done whether good or evil.

God Is a Gentleman — or Is He?

I cannot count the number of times I have heard preachers, Bible teachers, and others say, “God is a gentleman and he will never force you to do what you do not want to do.” Like so many errors, repeat it often enough and people will believe it.

Perhaps you believe this is true. Support your view with Scripture. Can you find one verse — or even one sentence in the entire Bible that will back you up?

Is God a gentleman? Let's see what He says about that. I think it goes without saying that a gentleman is first, foremost, and always a man. A gentleman is a gentle man or perhaps, a gentry man (gentry being derived from Old French for gentleman).

Before we can determine if God is a gentleman, we must first ascertain if he is a man. That answer is specifically answered in God's word, the Bible. “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19). Do you see that? “God is not a man.”

In case there is any doubt, or if you reason that that is just one verse, here is another: “And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.” (1 Samuel 15:29).

The Scriptures are clear: God is not a man. If God is not a man, how then could He be a gentleman? To call God a gentleman is to dishonor Him, putting Him on a level with His creation.

We must think of God as He is or we are guilty of mental-image idolatry. We must worship God in truth. We do not have the liberty to misrepresent Him or to portray Him as He is not.

God is God. Is that to say that God is not gentle? No. God is often quite the opposite: “With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt show thyself unsavory,” (2 Samuel 22:27). Was God a gentleman when he chased the Canaanites out of their cities with hornets (Exodus 23:28)? Was God a gentleman when he killed in a mass slaughter all the firstborn sons in Egypt on the night of the first Passover? Was God a gentleman when he drowned Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea?

Will God be a gentleman when he comes back in the person of Jesus Christ “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (2 Thessalonians 1:8)? There is nothing in the Bible to warrant calling God a gentleman.

Thankfully, God is a merciful and a gracious God and acts kindly toward all those that seek His face and desire to do His will. To those whose hearts are bent toward honoring God, God is gentle, kind, and compassionate. To those whose hearts are contrary to God, God will show Himself contrary.

“Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (5) But after your hardness and impenitent heart you treasure up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; (6) Who will render to every man according to his deeds: (7) To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: (8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, (9) Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile,” (Romans 2:4-9).