As a child I was taught to pray, hands together, eyes shut tight, memorized prayers written by other people.   I was not qualified to have a conversation with Yah, somebody had to direct my words in case I said something naughty.

And I must not pray for myself, it must be for other people.

The traditions of men…..

Yah’s word tells us to pray in private, He teaches us to acknowledge Him as Father, and that I can ask anything of our Father.

Religion sets out the rules; prayer meetings, set texts for prayer, supervision.   But Yah wants a dialogue, He wants us to tell him of the things on our hearts, my heart, my individual relationship with my Creator – “Oh Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz” as the song goes.   Really, if you want a Merc, tell him, you might not get a Merc but you will not get a stone either.

I will get what I deserve but only if I trust and rely on Him, as He tells us to all the time, then I too will be fed by the birds.   It is oh so easy to ask of Him, then try to make it happen ourselves, there is a very evil sermon often preached about a man stuck on the roof of his house in a flood, he refuses help because “God is going to rescue him”, he is drowned, and God tells him that He sent the physical rescuers why did he not heed them?

But it does not work that way, the story is wrong on so many levels, it saps my confidence and portrays Yah as a devious huckster and trust and reliance as derisory and foolish, but Yah has made us a promise, if we ask for bread will He give as a stone?

What is important is that we actually ask – please Yah I want to win millions of shekels…..

In asking, I purge my soul, I share my innermost desires with Yah, good or bad, He can then work on them, moulding them into His image and likeness, when I do not share my feelings, He is tied by my free will, when I tell Him in prayer He can set change in motion.

In all my desires, there is a gulf between what I want and what He wants for me, when I express those desires to Him he can fill the gap; I am giving Him my permission to make the changes in me that I cannot make.   If I covet my neighbour’s wife, I need to tell Yah about it so He can fix it not me.

We can try to control our passions, our lusts our wants, but only Yah can modify them into His Good, if we try to do it alone we modify them into Adam’s good which could well be Yah’s Bad.