I find it amusing that we are taught to pray for prosperity, for material things to be given to us. By preachers whose claim to fame is guaranteeing a rich man’s life to his followers. He got rich by swindling you with a false idea. With your contribution, you guarantee his prosperity. With his prosperity you will equate his success as proof of his infallible faith. Something you can hold on to and replicate. I don’t understand how the rephrased and reprised mantra of “give me your money and I’ll show you how to get rich” scheme works every time. But it does.
If there’s one thing in the Bible that’s exploited by faux pastors/ prophets, it’s the analogy of the shepherd and the sheep. The deeply embedded psyche we have to be led, to purchase a belief set and let it work like capital gaining interest. Lazy sheep that needs to be led to graze, and then slaughter.
Yet, there is something that we do every time we go to church whose value we may have undervalued. It’s the opportunity to have clarity. A clear mind in the midst of a chaotic world is an answered prayer. The sanctuary is much more helpful when the only sound that reverbs is the sound of your thoughts. No choir nor preacher can lead you to enlightenment more than an honest moment with yourself. You can be honest of what you can do and plot more realistically on how to do it. That my friend is the real voice of god.
Honesty is a virtue we all claim to have but most of us refuse to accept. It’s a vegetable, a broccoli. If only we can fry it. Cut it into chips. That’s why we embellish what we say about ourselves and everything we want to believe.
In silence I can accept the limitations of what I can do. I try not to drown in doubt so much because nothing will get done. We just have to be honest to be realistic. We must realize that we all need guidance. We all need help. We all need to help. But in every event that needs a decision that seems to hang in the balance between failure and success, take the shot, live with the result. Then wait for another and take a shot at it again.
Next time you pray, pray for clarity not specific prosperity. A clear mind with sound decision making is better than a vault of money cluttered with regret.
danDAman 