Matthew 15:7-9 7 “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 8 ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’”

Giving God lip service happens sometimes on purpose and others times by accident. Trying to pray as you think you ought verses just being open and honest before your God can lead to lip service. Praying as you think God expects you to pray or as you have heard others pray can lead to lip service. It’s not praying to please God or saying the words you think He wants to hear but it’s you praying with all sincerity and diligence.

God wants to have a close and personal relationship with you that includes you opening up your heart to Him. Flowery words and meaningless dribble is not what it takes to have an intimate relationship with your Creator! Having a heart for Jesus and wanting to know Him better and deeper is the kind of daily walk that He desires of you.

Why pray to God out of habit or ritual if what you are praying is not what is on your heart? That’s like praying to God to “fix” your problems that you created and then telling Him how to answer those prayers your way. Obliviously your own wisdom didn’t “fix” your problems so “advising” God on how to “fix” them only shows your arrogance not your respect.

As your God, He deserves your best, honest and earnest prayers. Yes there will be times when you can’t find the right way to put your prayer in to words. That’s when you ask the Holy Spirit to help you find the right words to pray. He knows exactly how to get your prayers across if you’ll let Him.

Prayer is a privilege that God has granted to His children. It’s a shame that we use it as the “last resort” for help. Or make a routine out of mouthing words that we don’t mean to a God that we won’t take the time to know better. Start your day off right every morning by spending time with God in honest and open prayer and watch how much better your day will turn out! Can you afford not to?