Preface
Preface
What the Book of Common Prayer says about marriage can readily be applied to Christian prayer as well: “[It] is not to be entered into lightly or carelessly, but reverently and in the fear of God.”
In today’s vernacular, the phrase “reverently and in the fear of God” simply means prayer is serious business. After all, true praying means communing with the God of the universe and cooperating with Him in accomplishing His will on earth. If I were invited to speak to the president of the United States in the White House or to royalty in Buckingham Palace, I would feel highly honored and would prepare myself to be at my best. Should I feel any less honored or be any less prepared when I meet my heavenly Father and my Savior at the throne of grace? Prayer should be a joyful fellowship, but it’s also a serious encounter, and I want to approach His throne with reverence and godly fear.
The prophet Malachi may have had a similar thought in mind when he rebuked the temple priests for offering the Lord cheap sacrifices:
“When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty. (Mal. 1:8)
Prayer is not only serious business, but it’s also an expensive privilege. Why should our prayers be like the cheap temple sacrifices of which Malachi spoke when Jesus had to suffer and die just to make the privilege of prayer possible? For believers to enter the Holy of Holies to speak to the Lord cost Jesus His life on the cross. It wasn’t His teaching or His miracles that tore the temple veil from top to bottom and opened the “new and living way” (Heb. 10:20). The veil was opened because Jesus shed His blood for our sins.
To make light of prayer and take it for granted, to pray carelessly and flippantly, is to make light of the death of God’s only Son. God doesn’t answer cheap prayers.