Please Read the passage.
David Head, in his 1959 book He Sent Leanness, said that prayers could be silly, harmful, childish, misguided, and selfish. Yet, he says, no one who reaches out toward God is ever cast out. He thinks it better to pray foolishly than not all. Of course, we always need to remember that God is in our pockets.
One of his points is that we ought to pray, even when the best we can muster is a complaint against God or a self-centered demand. Head’s larger point is that when we pray only out of our natural, unspiritual state, we miss the greater riches of God.
The Bible contains many self-centered prayers. One of them is Genesis 28:10-22, in which Jacob receives an unexpected visitation from God. He has recently gotten is older brother to sell his birthright and his father to bless him over his older brother. This has led division in the family. Yet, suddenly God visits him. God has not given up. Yet, even with this visitation, he offers an “if … then” prayer. If God will do certain things for Jacob, then Jacob will accept God as his God.
As Psalm 139:23-24 puts it, search us, and see if there be any wicked way in us. Our prayers shape who we are, for they express the desires and hopes of our hearts. We need to let God search us, in order to properly orient our prayers toward what God wants, rather than just what we want.
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