Late one evening, a poor farmer on his way back from the market found himself without his prayer book. The wheels of his cart had come off right in the middle of the woods and it distressed him that this day should pass without his having said his prayers.So this is the prayer he made: "I have done something very foolish, Lord. I came away from home this morning without my prayer book and my memory is such that I cannot recite a single prayer without it. So this is what I am going to do. I shall recite the alphabet five times very slowly and You, to whom all prayers are known, can put the letters together to form the prayers I can't remember."
And the Lord said to his angels, "Of all the prayers I have heard today, this one was undoubtedly the best because it came from a heart that was simple and sincere."
What a crock.
Hey god, I’ll make you a deal. It reminds me of the story of the guy who promised to give all his money to god if god would save his life, and then after he was saved had seconds thoughts about the seriousness of his predicament, and reasoned that he would have probably lived any way, but his conscience began to bother him so he took all his, money and threw it into the air and told god to take what he wanted, and any that fell back to earth he would keep.
If the idiot in this story was smart enough to know the alphabet, I would have thought he could have remembered one prayer.
Any idiot that could come up with a deal like that and yet didn't know enough to ask God for help, deserves to be stuck in the woods with a flat.
If he couldn't remember one prayer, he must have really been sincere when he was vainly mumbling his way through the book normally.
I think that post like this are pathetic, it sends all the wrong messages to anybody reading it, but if you were a pansy, it might give you a warm fuzzy feeling.
...just pray to You in my own words ?????? Did that ever occur to the guy? Who ever said we had to use a book of sample prayers?
Dumb story and foolish central character. Prayer is not something we read from a book, it is a conversation with God. If one cannot talk to God without reading a script, then one has no idea who God is. Imagine if your wife could not address you unless she had a book in her hand to read responses from - not translating - just made up words chose from a list..:
flip flip flip, "My stomach aches for food, cans't though tell it when it will be filled" (translation, page 4 - when is dinner).
Wife: flip flip flip, "Norm!" oops, wrong book. flip flip, "The pancakes will be ready in fifteen minutes after preparing the ingredients"(translation, page 2,000,486 - whenever).
Imagine if your entire family did the same - nobody could speak to you unless they read the words from some script. It's called being plastic and so useless as to be unable to think for oneself. If one has to read prayers from a prayerbook, they're doomed in spiritual combat. But then they'd be so decieved as to think 'spiritual combat' a metaphor.
The great person in prayer is not one who can memorize and repeat verbatim a script. The great person in prayer is the one that can communicate with the Lord - One who knows the will of the Lord and the authority he has through God. Reading prewritten prayers is a monument to ignorance of a relationship with God.
God doesn't want you reading what someone else had to say in a pre-written formula. He wants to hear from your heart - not someones prepared remarks and wishlist for all occasions in order of topic. "For a new car, turn to chapter 3. For good weather, chapter 5." Note, such a thing could easily be called witchcraft.. If you're reading it and expecting a pre-determined result with no regard for God's will - just saying words, you are relying on the script to get what you want instead of relying on God. This is witchcraft. Only in witchcraft they'd call it an incantation. Theyed burn candles for the occasion and perform little rituals. I'd note that prayer beeds were not made up by Catholicism, they were imported from pagan religion. They are used in ritual for "centering" which is the new age terminology for clearing the mind. If you don't know things spiritual, you won't know the significance of that either. Or how wrong it is. Prayer beads are about as useful as the memorized prayer - try walking into your home each day and saying the same paragraph to your wife 26 times . I can tell you how long it would take to be over it. Repeating prayers is a form of taking God's name in vain. And it's because you aren't waiting on an answer from him; but, from a ritual. Again, witchcraft. It is witchcraft because your invoking a man made ritual and expecting a programmed response. I know that'll tick off a few people; but, God doesn't work on rituals - he works on conversation based on obedience to his will. Men have just tried to make him perform like a puppet through the pagan rituals God always has found offensive.
Matt. 6 says: "But when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the pagans do who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Therefore do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." No need for recitations; just talk to the Father; this is the kind of prayer that pleases Him, according to this passage.