The Purpose of Prayer

I took the liberty and combined four consecutive tweets (from Twitter) from Brian Zahnd on the subject of prayer. It reads as follows:

“We are endlessly tempted to place prayer in the uniquely modern category of self-help. But true prayer is no such thing. Prayer is not a ‘technique‘ for making our lives ‘better‘ as understood by the assumed cultural values of consumerist America. As long as we control the agenda, prayer will be seen as a means of manipulating omnipotence—which is a fair description of idolatry. The primary purpose of prayer is not to get God to do what we think God ought to do, but to be properly formed.” ~ ~ ~ Brian Zahnd