For four years I was an Assemblies of God minister and a monk with the Brothers and Sisters of Charity at the Little Portion Hermitage. This is an excerpt from my book Taking Off My Comfortable Clothes: Removing Religion to Find Relationship.

God has brought it to my attention that I am a “crisis pray-er.” That’s a person who does their most intense, praying-it-through sessions with God only when they are in a crisis. Too often, I seek God in my needs, and not simply to be with Him and enjoy Him. This type of prayer seeks THINGS from God instead of seeking God.

A crisis pray-er. Okay, that stings.  I may not have liked it, but I knew God was right. I was a man who often found time to sit quietly with God only when I thought I was in need of something. Those “needs,” real or unreal, made up the substance of my prayers, which I took to God in search of a quick fix or a timely solution. I was not spending time with the Lord God Almighty because I felt He was such good company, or because I longed to bask in His presence in worship, or because I understood the privilege we have as Christians to boldly approach God’s throne, or because I desired to learn from His infinite wisdom the course my life should take. No, I sought God only because I saw Him as a heavenly fix-it man, there for me when I needed a repair. Other than that, I was good on my own.

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