LORD, TEACH US HOW TO PRAY......AGAIN!!!!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always believed that one of the most fundamental things about prayer was that it is designed to teach the believer to totally depend on God's power to move in situations. For instance, when Jesus gave the LORD's prayer, didn't He instruct us to ask God to bring His Kingdom to pass, His will to be done on earth, to give us our daily bread, to forgive us of our debts, to guide us away from temptation, and to deliver us from Satan? Obviously, if we could do all these things on our own, then why ask God to do them for us?

I bring this point up because I have noticed that lately that many people are praying prayers where they are telling God what they will do, instead of depending on Him to do what needs to be done. For instance, I was at a prayer meeting yesterday and I heard things mentioned like, "Satan, I bind you in Jesus name"! "I take authority over that situation"! and "Lord, I speak against (this or that)"!

Now, putting aside the simple truth that nowhere in Scripture is such power given to the Christian, I have to ask the question: Can statements that brag about some "power" we have in Christ be considered a true prayer in light of the Biblical record? The answer to that is, No!

Sadly, in this age of Christian anti-intellectualism, many Christians are not following the Biblical models of such things as prayer and worship. But rather, many are taking their understandings from traditions and/or other mislead people who are just as (or even more) lazier than some of them when it comes to researching Bible interpretation and commands. And until Christians start trusting in the sole sufficiency of Scripture, crazy misperceptions will not only stay in the church, but will make many people reject the authority of Scripture altogether (if it's not already happening)!!!!