To Whom Do You Pray?

By Eddie Smith

I walked into an idol shop in Madras, India one day. The owner was squatting on the
floor in the corner, holding a log with his bare feet, while he chopped away with a
sharp carving axe.
"What are you making?" I asked him.
He said, "I'm carving a god."

"Which god?"
He said the name of the god, a name I could never pronounce.

"What is this god's purpose?" I asked.
"It's the god of prosperity," he replied.

I replied to this frantically: "Hurry. Finish him. Quickly!"
"Why the rush?" he said, puzzled by my insistence.

"Look outside your shop. There are lepers lying beside your doorway. There are beggars at the street corner. There is poverty everywhere. Quick! Finish carving your 'god of prosperity' so he can go to work for them!"

I'll never forget the look on his face. It seemed to say,
"What you just said makes sense to me."

Prayer is built into the hearts of everyone, whether their gods are represented by
nature (i.e., the earth, the sun, moon, and stars, mountains and volcanoes, and
such), or gods of their making (idols). Paul tells us that idols are no gods at all. But
the deceptive evil powers behind them are demonic spirits.

Christians do not pray to nature or to man-made gods. We pray to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah, Creator of all things. But it is important that we know
Him, if He is to hear us. I'm not only referring to knowing Him as Lord and Savior. I also
mean knowing who He is and what He is like. I'm talking about knowing His intentions,
His goals, His methods, and His procedures.

In Psalm 103:7 we read, "He [God] made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the
people of Israel." The Israelites learned God's deeds--what He did. But most of them
never learned God's ways--why He did it.

The deeds of God reveal God's ability; His ways reveal His intentions.

This explains the difference between the way the children of Israel prayed and the
way Moses prayed. To Moses, his relationship with God was to be cherished and
nurtured. To the Israelites, God was little more than a "problem solver." They never
saw beyond their problem. They only knew about God. Moses knew God!

To whom do you pray?