Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The function of prayer

"The Prayer"

It has always bothered me when I hear people talk about prayer as if the purpose of it is to tell God what God wouldn't know otherwise and then to convince God how things ought to be. The following approach is more reverent, I think, and really about true submission to God:

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

-- Soren Kierkegaard

2 comments:

  1. If I am not mistaken, C.S. Lewis said something very close to this also....

    ...and we can spend a lifetime learning this basic, simple, complex truth...

    ReplyDelete

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