iPray - Pray Like Jesus

Churches, books, and leaders continually preach that prayer is to get from God rather than to get God. This is paganism.

Many Christians have bad theology that does not work in times when they need it the most.

Here are some common WRONG messages:
1) If you have more faith in prayer, you will be healed.
2) If you become a Christian, everything is going to get better.
3) If you find a community of "real" believers, no one will let you down, forget to pray for you, and betray you.
4) If you trust God, you'll be rich.
5) If you follow Jesus, you will be a winner and not a loser.
6) If you pursue God, you'll be healthy.
7) I can claim promises.

In other words, if you have enough faith in Jesus you don't have to be like Him. Jesus suffered, hurt, was betrayed, not a winner (according to the world...since the world doesn't usually kill "winners") and was poor.

Jesus ended His prayers "not as I will, but as You will." This is the difference between pagan prayer and Christian prayer. The majority of popular Christian teaching is paganism. Paganism says, "God, heal me, fix me, change him/her, do this, or do that." Or, in other words, "I'm god, and God needs to obey me. So, do this God." God encourages honesty and asks us to make requests to Him, but if you don't add "not as I will, but Your will be done" then you are telling God what to do. Does prayer change things? Sometimes God does change things through prayer. But, the majority of time, prayer changes us.