Teach Me To PraySample

Communication Obstacles: Arrogance

Is it good to be self-reliant? Of course. If you are a parent, you have spent years and huge amounts of energy teaching and training your kids to take care of themselves. Self-reliance is good. Self-absorption is not.

I know one reason why people don’t pray much and why God doesn’t hear from me more: arrogance. When you’re pretty full of yourself and think you can do it all, praying seems like begging, or worse, a waste of time.

Jesus told a story about a farmer who thought his huge profits were realized because he was such a genius: ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” But God said to him, ‘You fool!’ (Luke 12:17-20).

I think that’s one major reason why God lets people, including his believers, suffer. It is vital that we see our limitations, our sin, our mortality. We utterly depend on God’s providing and forgiveness every day.

Practice with me: “Lord, I need you. Help me today.”