There Are Several Substandard Ways of Praying

There are mainly five types of substandard ways of praying. The first type is praying with insincerity. By “insincere” you know what that means, right? You have seen religious people with their eyes closed while they mumble, just mumbling away for a long time and you can’t understand what they’re saying. Their mouths move very quickly because they say these words day after day. They’ll write down those words and any other good prayers in a notebook, which they will memorize. After they have it memorized, they’ll say it once every day and again the next day. Sometimes they’ll mumble their prayer and find that it didn’t take enough time, so they’ll mumble it through again once or several times, not realizing how many times they’ve repeated those words. People like this aren’t worshiping God with their heart, but just with their mouths. This is what is known as praying with insincerity. The second type is praying during religious ceremonies. Such prayers are usually done at the location of worship and in accordance with the requirements of the religion; the prayers are made based on the sequence of the ceremony. For the most part, this type of prayer is observing rituals and they are just empty words that are repeated. It is nothing more than mumbling those usual words, going through the motions, through a formality. It is not genuine worship of God. This is the prayer that follows religious rituals. The third type is deceitful prayer. So, what does deceitful prayer mean? It means telling lies and being deceitful in the presence of God. For example, it is saying things like: “Oh God, I am ready to dedicate myself to You” or “Oh God, I am willing to expend my entire life for You” or “Oh God, I will never depart from You” or “Oh God, I am willing to satisfy You in all things.” Yet, they never satisfy God in anything and those are simply empty promises. Isn’t that lying and being deceitful to God? Some people say: “Oh God, I will give my child to You and I will give myself to You.” Do they really offer those things up to God? They don’t. Some people say they will give this and that up to God, or even say they’ll give everything to God, but actually they didn’t give anything. Isn’t this lying and being deceitful to God? These are all examples of deceitful prayer. The fourth type is trying to reason with God or negotiate through prayer. What are the manifestations of reasoning with God or negotiating with Him? Some people say: “Oh God, why have You let this situation befall me? Why have I become sick? I have never been far away from You, never betrayed You, and never judged You, so why have You allowed me to become sick? I have expended myself for You over all these years, had faith in You for so many years, and I have always sought You out, prayed to You, and satisfied You. Why have You let me become sick?” Isn’t this arguing or negotiating with God? And others say: “Oh God, haven’t You promised us that no matter what difficulties there are, we can pray to You and appeal to You? As long as we make an appeal, You will agree. I have appealed to You, so why haven’t You responded to me?” This is reasoning and trying to negotiate with God, right? Have any of you made many prayers like that? There are many such prayers. The fifth type is a doubtful or testing prayer. People have doubts toward God, so words of doubt often appear in their prayers. They always test God by saying: “Oh God, do You really exist? If You do exist, give me a sign. If You do exist, You should do something so that I know.” Or: “Is there really a God? Maybe You can allow me to become a little ill, and if that really happens I’ll be certain that there is a God and believe that You exist.” Isn’t this doubting and testing God? God does not lend an ear to these five types of prayers. Moreover, He despises them. It is fair to say that everyone has more or less made some of these five types of prayers, right? So which type of prayer have you done the most? It would probably be praying with insincerity, or perhaps deceitful prayers, or maybe making groundless promises to God where you don’t follow through, right? Do you think it’s easy to deceive God? All you have to do is say a few words, you feel great. and that’s it. Isn’t someone who always does this trying to deceive God? Are people who often pray like this being honest with God? Have they given their hearts to God? Have they truly turned toward God? No, they haven’t. For these people, their faith resides in their mouths but their hearts haven’t turned toward God. Would they try to deceive God if their hearts had really turned toward Him? If an honest person lies to someone once, they feel that it’s a transgression, but they would not dare lie to God. For someone to pray to God and interact with Him with empty promises and is really too much. It is a serious offense against God’s disposition. Would you say that it’s okay for people to handle matters with other people this way? If your dealings with people always involve empty promises or deceit, would people stay in touch with you for very long? If you made empty promises to someone once, and then lied to them the next, people would see that and think: “He deceived me on this matter. I thought he was honest, but it turns out he isn’t. In the future, I will really have to think about what he says to me. I will have to be on my guard with him.” If you often deceive others, they will be on their guard against you, right? And if people are on their guard against you, you have failed as a person, so can you still be called a person? You have failed as a person and you have lost your reputation in the minds of other people, and no one will recognize you as an honest person; they’ll call you a liar. So what is a liar? It’s the spawn of the devil, right? If you wish to enter into genuine prayer, you must first suppress and resolve these several types of substandard prayer. What problems do these several types of prayers reveal about people? They reveal that people are corrupt, that people lack a conscience, lack sense, and lack humanity. These prayers reveal that, like the devil, people lie to God and try to deceive Him, and they try to reason and negotiate with Him. These prayers reveal that people do not obey God, that they doubt Him and test him. Aren’t all the things that the devil tries to do revealed here? Would you say that someone who makes all of these types of substandard prayers has been washed clean of their corruption? Do they understand God? Are they someone who reveres God? Do they submit to God? Has their heart turned toward God? They do not possess these things so they lack even the slightest reality of believing in God. People like this are certainly crooked and treacherous. They are people who test God, who try to deceive Him, and they are fond of reasoning and negotiating with Him. These people are utterly unreasonable. So, do people like that possess humanity? Isn’t that just being like Satan or the devil, or perhaps the spawn of the devil? The devil loves to lie just like that type of person loves to lie and where the devil loves to lie, reason, and negotiate with God, so does that type of person. This type of person is certainly thoroughly corrupted and shows ample examples of satanic behavior. Therefore, to enter into genuine prayer, the issues of corruption and the poisons of Satan that exist within these five types of substandard prayers must be thoroughly understood. For example, we must completely understand what deceitful prayers are comprised of—this needs to be summarized. What sort of nature do those insincere prayers belong to? Aren’t they dealing with God perfunctorily? They are irreverent to God and they don’t treat Him as He should be treated. You can respond to someone with insincerity, but if you treat God that way, isn’t that irreverent? It means you’re not treating God the way He should be treated. If you responded to your children this way, they would feel dissatisfied. If you responded to other brothers and sisters in the church this way, they would feel dissatisfied too. Someone might say: “You are not speaking to me from the heart; is this respecting me?” And are you someone who reveres God if you pray by following religious rituals? Do you have a true communion with God, or do you just lie to Him with what you say? Is this how you show your faith in God? Furthermore, we must clearly see the root causes and the essence of these five types of substandard prayers. Why are people capable of making these kinds of prayers? When people come before God they must first examine themselves closely by doing the following: Firstly, what will be in my heart as I pray to God? Secondly, what do I want to pray to God about, and should I pray to Him about this? I must have sense. Thirdly, what are my actual circumstances? How should I express the true feelings in my heart? You must thoroughly understand your own circumstances and then confide in God, speak to what’s in your heart, so that He may listen and think: “These are true words from this person’s heart. They have finally communicated heart to heart with Me and can speak the truth to Me. These are humane words and what a person should be like.” True prayer starts from when a person can purely open his heart wide to God. When a person can say to God what is in his heart, can truly lay his heart bare, can recount to God his own true difficulties and corrupt state, and then beg for God’s mercy, beg for God’s salvation, this is speaking what is in his heart. In God’s view, even though a person is immature and does not understand the truth, as long as he can open his heart to God, God will be very satisfied; God’s requirements for man are not high. … So how do we resolve the problem of these phony and deceitful prayers? This is the crucial question. Some people say: “If I don’t pray like that anymore it’ll be fine, right?” This isn’t to say that avoiding making those prayers will resolve the issue. If you want to stop saying those types of prayers but you are unable to, you must first resolve the root of the problem. What sort of nature is being revealed in each of the problems where someone, in praying, is being deceitful to God, insincere to God, just going through the religious rituals, or trying to reason or negotiate with God, or being doubtful and trying to test Him? What problem does it indicate when people treat God in this manner? Being capable of this means people are under what control? Do people who do this have room for God in their hearts? Are they treating God like God should be treated? Why would people dare to deceive God through prayer? How dare they use prayer to resist, deceive, test, and doubt God? Isn’t this an expression of resisting and betraying God? It is indeed. We must understand the essence of these problems. So why are you able to resist and betray God this way? What kind of thought control are you subjected to that makes you do this? What viewpoint is making you do so? You must recognize these issues before you can truly resolve them. You do not understand your corrupt essence and the root cause of your corruptions, so how could you use the truth to resolve these problems? How would you be able to achieve entering into God’s word? What must you do first to enter into the truth? You must eliminate your corruption. If you don’t, how can you enter into the truth? Truths are positive things, the reality of positive things. If you do not completely understand your corruption and thoroughly remove it, you will not be able to enter into the truth. Why do people try to deceive God? Why do people test God? We must clearly understand the truth to resolve this issue. So what aspect of truth should we understand? People are beings of creation and God is the Lord of creation. God is the Spirit and He is the source of people’s lives, so why can’t you treat God like God? What’s the problem? If you do it this way, what does that mean for your internal disposition? What does that reveal about your disposition? Do you have a conscience or reason? What is your stance? After you have understood the essence of these problems, you will see your actions before God and see exactly who you are before God. After seeing these things, you must immediately communicate with God about the different kinds of deceitfulness and resistance to God in your prayers, and you must communicate to God your understanding of how your corruption is revealed. You should speak clearly about all of this with God. It is unacceptable if you do not bring these things up before God; this can’t be settled privately. It simply cannot be done that way. Do not think that: “I know it in my heart so everything is fine. I’ll just be careful in the future and that will be enough.” Is that what the problem is? You must bring it before God to resolve it, examine it, and understand it, and you must ask for God to enlighten you. God will let you see the truth and the essence of your corruption, and He will show you why you deceived Him and resisted Him. You must then establish your resolve in the presence of God. He will show you how to repent and how you should pray to Him. This is the only way to achieve results. Are you clear on this now? God detests these five types of prayers that don’t meet His standards. It is crucial that we first understand them, resolve them, and eliminate them from our hearts.