MAY 30
MATTHEW 6:7_for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Can you pray wrong? Absolutely. James 4:3 (KJV), “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
You can pray and never receive when you ask for something which will be harmful to your character. You may think of lust as sexual, but you can lust for clothes, cars, homes, gadgets, and many kinds of things. It isn’t wrong to pray for needs or even for wants. It’s what we’ve learned over and over—the condition of the heart. The heart is the center of lust and of righteousness
God, who reads the heart, knows which reigns. The one that reigns produces the prayers
In this verse, Jesus refers to praying to idols and false gods. Psalm 115:4-8 (KJV), “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. 5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: 6 They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: 7 They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. 8 They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.”
Idol worshipers must think if they babble enough they will be heard. The problem with that is idols “have ears but they hear not.”
One of the best stories on idols and those who worship them is found in I Kings 18. Read this powerful, and somewhat humorous, account of God’s prophet Elijah, wicked King Ahab, Queen Jezebel, the false god Baal, and Baal’s priests.
Learn what happens when the priests call on Baal, and Elijah calls on God.
PRAYER
True God, Please show me when I am praying selfish prayers. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.
Christ knows a destructive prayer—He does not answer!
The Works of Her Hands 