The Papa Prayer

Crabb has written some very helpful and incisive material in the past on how we as humans relate to each other and to God. \\r\\nIn his latest work he tackles prayer and claims to have revolutionised his prayer life - what Christian wouldn't want that?\\r\\nCrabb encourages a lot of self analysis before we approach God: how am I going? What do I think of God at the moment? \\r\\nThe more I read, the more I found myself thinking - """"this sounds like hard work"""". And then, why doesn't this remind me of any of the prayers in the bible?\\r\\nIt is right that we approach God with humility (eg Pharisee and Tax collector in the Temple, Luke 18:9-14), and approach the right God, not a God of our imagination or wishing (the OT is full of examples of prophets critising the people for 'worshipping' God in the wrong way and with the wrong heart). \\r\\nBut Crabb's advice, I felt, bordered on the navel gazing. There was more focus on how I felt, not nearly enough on looking at how godly people in the bible pray. Plus, how the bible reveals God's character in the bible is FAR more important than how I'm feeling about Him at any given time. \\r\\nBy comparison, see Don Carson's brilliant """"A Call to Spiritual Reformation"""" that looks at how Paul prays.