Selfish Prayers

In mid-August, I was watching the weather news concerning the approach of Hurricane Charley to the coast of Florida. I’d been keeping up with Charley and Bonnie, to a certain extent, because my son was ready to drive from North Carolina to Texas, and the storms were determining the route he would take. Also, my husband was to have an early Saturday morning flight, and I was watching to see if the storm might interfere with that. My prayers were all about a safe drive for my son and a safe flight for my husband. Me and mine. On Friday afternoon, however, as Charley had just gone from a category 2 to a category 4 storm in the course of only a couple of hours, I thought of good friends in the Tampa area, wondering what they were doing to prepare. Then many more came to mind, since we lived there for 10 years. Suddenly, I was struck with just how selfish I had been in my praying. I was only concerned for what was directly affecting me, not considering others who might feel the storm’s effects, whether I knew them or not.

Phil 2:3-4 NIV: ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  ⁴ Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

I never saw these verses before in light of prayer. But when it says do nothing out of selfish ambition, prayer is definitely to be included. Are we never to pray for things that concern us? Even verse 4 indicates that we are to look to our own interests – just not exclusively. It would be along the lines of loving our neighbor as ourselves, which means that we are to love ourselves, but not exclusively or inordinately. It’s the same with prayer.

The conviction of the Holy Spirit caused me to realize just how ugly my selfish prayers were in God’s sight. I hated seeing it in me; worse yet, I hated that it was there to be found. I’m so thankful, on the other hand, that the Lord loves me enough to correct me. I repented and received God’s forgiveness. Then I began to pray about the storm again, but this time from God’s perspective (see August issue,) with a concern for all the people who would be affected.

© Copyright 2004 Kay V. Stocking