Dangerous Prayers: Because Following Jesus was Never Meant to be Safe - By Craig Groeschel

“And there I was praying that God would keep me safe and bless my burger and fries… My prayers were lame” (p. 12-13).

Do you feel like your prayers are lame?

Do you find yourself praying the same prayer over and over again in a robotic fashion?

Maybe like Craig, you are praying for physical safety and God’s blessings on your burgers and fries.

I have never heard any person I know say they pray enough or too much. Prayer is perhaps the most neglected spiritual practice that provides the greatest rewards to those who engage in it. God not only works directly in and through our prayers, but He also changes us as we pray.

So why do we often neglect it? 

Week 12 of 52 in the Tim Challies 2020 reading challenge is Dangerous Prayers: Because Following Jesus was Never Meant to be Safe by Craig Groeschel. As the Senior Pastor of Life.Church, Craig has been providing teaching and leadership since 1996. He has written several other books including Hope In The Dark: Believing God is Good When Life Is Not, and hosts the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast.  

In Dangerous Prayers, Pastor Craig argues for three simple but extremely perilous prayers.      

Search Me. Break Me. Send Me.

Craig says that before praying this way, he “was in a comfort zone with God, built on lame, half-hearted communication” (p. 16-17).

This book is both a confessional narration and a pastoral plea for Christians to engage in prayer from the heart. Craig illustrates using his own experience how these prayers have shaped his ministry and life.

Let’s jump into Dangerous prayers, looking first at its good and commendable qualities and then lastly the bad or better put, points to consider while reading.

The Good

1.       Honest

I appreciate and applaud Craig's transparency with his struggles with prayer. Craig doesn’t illustrate a previous life before ministry but confesses and doesn’t deny the struggle with prayer while actively serving as a pastor.

As disciples of Jesus, we are called to be active in prayer. And this isn't only for the "professional" or "professor" types of Christians. This is every single person who professes faith in Christ.

The first section of the book is titled Search Me. The title is the prayer itself. Ask God to search your heart, mind, body, and soul and reveal to you where you need to surrender to him.

Craig initiates this with a warning.

“Be forewarned, this prayer has the potential to convict you. To correct you. To redirect your life. To change the way you see yourself. To change how others see you” (p. 32).

From his own experience and that of others, Craig shares how when you pray this you will likely encounter fears.

Fears, that if you acknowledge God’s conviction on your heart, will likely mean you will have to let him change you. On this he says, “Our fears matter. Because ultimately, our fears show how we’re relying on our own efforts and not trusting in our Savior” (p. 32).

I was convicted as Craig shared one of his convictions. Praying this prayer will mean you will face a reality that you may not like.

“I was at my son’s soccer game when God answered my prayer. I was responding to a text and missed my son’s amazing corner kick that his teammate headed into the goal to take a 1–0 lead against the top-ranked team. Then late in the second half with the game tied 1–1 and a few minutes left to go, I missed my son’s game-winning goal because I was checking on a social media post. God showed me clearly: I was settling for a counterfeit reality and missing out on what mattered most. I was missing out on my life, losing precious moments with the people I love most” (p. 48).

If we are honest, we likely are engaging with a counterfeit reality as well. Technology and screen time dominate most of our days. But is that wrong? Is that sinful? This is 2020, this is our reality now, right?

Pray. Ask God to Search your motivations, desires, and reasons for engaging in your daily activities.

I assume that you will find, like me, that they need realignment.

2.       Dangerous

“God, do whatever it takes to free me from my love for this world. To crucify my love of comfort. God, break me” (p. 88).

This is dangerous. If you pray this prayer, your life will change.

I want us to be careful here, and this is partly what I will touch on more in "the bad" section because not all the things you love in this world are wrong and sinful.

The sinful practice occurs when we worship the creation rather than the creator. Romans 1:25 says, "They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.”

Craig Groeschel

When we pray to be broken, we should be broken by the truth of God’s word revealing the sinfulness of our hearts. While I love this prayer Craig says to pray, I want to add that this should never be prayed without constant reflection in scripture.

Praying to be broken, just for the sake of brokenness, is religiosity. It too is a distortion of worship, seeking and craving a feeling that deceives the soul into false holiness.

Asking God to break you, should always be followed by, according to Your truth. We seek to be broken by our sinfulness as we actively study and engage with the living and active word of God.

When we do that, he will break us, so that he can heal us.

Moving from these two excellent aspects of the book, on to my one warning to readers.

The Bad

1.       Emotionally Charged rather than Biblically Rooted

Dangerous Prayers is practically easy to read but a true spiritual challenge. However, I could not help but notice the lack of expositional engagement with scripture throughout the book.

Yes, there are many verses quoted. And while I want to believe Pastor Craig has thoroughly exposited scriptures context to ensure they apply to his point, I fear there is significant using isolated scriptures to prove a point.

During his section on “Break Me” he uses the last supper has his main text to support the idea that Christians should seek to be broken and poured out. While I dont argue the truth of the statement, the support for the claim is left wanting.

He states plainly, "But some scholars believe, and I agree, that Jesus’ instruction to “do this” included more than a simple and short act, or ritual, involving bread and wine. Some believe that Jesus’ “do this” also refers to how we are to live… This may not sound appealing at first glance. Who wants to be “broken” and “poured out”? That sounds painful at best, miserable at worst. But it’s in the giving of our lives that we find true joy” (p. 82-83).

Craig has provided no exposition and no real argument for this interpretation other than "some scholars believe." In philosophy, this is the definition of the fallacy that appeals to authority. The claim is false because its only support is "some scholars" who aren't even named.

Who are these scholars? Why did they come to this conclusion? What is in the context, biblical theology or historical theology that leads to this conclusion? 

The great danger here is that we can potentially be persuaded into a certain type of thinking that is not prescriptive in the text.

As disciples of Christ, we should model the reaction of the Bereans whenever we consider God's truth.

Acts 17:11 "Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."  

Overall, I think this is a good book to think through and be challenged in personal prayer practices. We neglect prayer to our own detriment and can use all the help we can get to motivate and realign us to valuing and engaging in prayer. But with that said, I recommend approaching Dangerous Prayers with a Berean mind. 

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