'Praying Big' within the Context of the Bible

Commercial Christianity is such that when a particular message becomes popular, pastors across the board tend to start regurgitating it.  I don't know if this is the case of one pastor coming up with a catchy concept and then others plagiarizing it.  Or maybe, given their general tendency to secularize the Bible, such thoughts evolve naturally.  All things considered, that phenomenon may be a combination of both.

One major difference between Christian leaders of the today and the actual originators of the religion is that the former are wealthy.  Jesus, the Apostles, Paul and the early church, those people were not rich.  In fact with the early church, at least as far as Jersusalem was concerned, participants actually forsook their wealth upon joining, for the greater good of the whole.  By contrast, Christian leaders of today aren't likely to use their own wealth to help their congregation.  If they engage in a notable act of charity, it's likely using resources they solicited from the congregation and after they have taken their own personal cut. 

Christianity, ideologically, is a belief system that's against the ways of the world.  But these days, it has basically become such that practitioners are advised to rather to rather seek a higher stand in the world, such as the acquisition riches.  In fact, being rich has now become synonymous with the concept of being blessed.

RICHES, A UNIVERSAL DESIRE

The desire to be rich is a lot the desire for sex.  In certain general contexts, i.e. sleeping with people that perhaps we shouldn't, we know that sex is wrong.  Maybe the person is married or divorced or a sex worker or someone we don't intend to commit to, etc.  But even if you say to yourself 'okay, I'm not going to sleep with this person', that doesn't mean the desire to do so will magically disappear.

It's the same with riches.  We all know how destructive money can be, not only on a spiritual level, but sometimes even the people who are rich warning us so.  Don't forget that Diddy dropped a song back in the day called "Mo(re) Money, Mo(re) Problems".  He knew this but did not forsake his wealth, rather going about increasing it.  And now, he really is dealing with rich man problems, so to speak.

TENETS OF COMMERCIAL CHRISTIANITY

Commercial Christian leaders, such as megapastors, are such that the logic of their business model is based on the more people who like you, the better.  When Jesus spoke, he was not afraid to offend people.  His ultimate goal was encouraging repentance, a concept that a lot of people resist because we either enjoy sin or may be even making a living off of it.  He wasn't going around, encouraging people to follow him so that he can take their money.  He rather fed masses and was even healing them.

The Bible is a hard book.  It's not what you call easy reading, and in many instances, it's telling or advising you to do thing that you don't want to.

Megapastors, due to their standard business model of making people feel good and encouraged, cannot harp on those aspects of the Good Book.  The purpose of a church, in its modern manifestation, is not to get its attendees to heaven.  Most of the time, the pastor him or herself likely isn't heaven-bound.  The purpose of most churches these days is to make people believe they're headed to Heaven, even when they're not.

So for instance, you're not likely to hear a pastor use the word "repent" a lot, if at all.  They also aren't likely to point out that from a New Testament perspective, being rich is actually considered a bad thing, i.e. a major, even fatal distraction from one's relationship with God.

THE LORD'S PRAYER

During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus advised believers on how they should pray.  While doing so, he specifically pointed out that "your Father knows what you need before you ask Him".  Then, in terms of personal needs, he goes on to advising that we praying for "our daily bread", not houses or cars or riches.

The argument I'm making isn't that you shouldn't pray for those things.  There's no fooling God, and if you want them, you want them.  The way I see it, that's what God is for so to speak, to help us at times that we can't help ourselves, to achieve things that we may not be able to otherwise.

But obviously, wealth is not meant to be the focus of our prayers.  So that then begs the question of why these pastors are advising us to 'pray big'.  Some even go as far as to insinuate that if we don't, we're doing something wrong and therefore won't be rightfully blessed.

Also keep in mind that even though the Lord's Prayer is out there, virtually all big-name churches have their own prayers which they close out their sermons with.  None of those are the Lord's Prayer but rather have been designed by the pastor.  Hmm.  I guess he or she knows what we need even moreso than Jesus.

CONCLUSION

The main goal of the church is supposed to be getting people's relationship with God right, not primarily in the name of making them comfortable here and now but more pressingly in anticipation of the afterlife.  The body dies, but the spirit does not, unless apparently if the Most High decides to destroy it.

Ultimately your prayers, at least the way Jesus taught, are supposed to only be between you and God.  He knows our heart's desires, so there's no need to try to front, so to speak.

But going back to the Lord's Prayer, the aim is supposed to be conforming our will to His, not vice versa.  And amongst the many biblical ideas pastors tend to the ignore, i.e. those who advocate "praying big", is that praying and believing does not guarantee that you'll get what you want.  Rather, what you're asking for should be in congruence with God's will.  If you're asking for something in the name of Jesus, you're not likely to believe you're going to receive it if your request is evil.

The modern church is based a lot on the implication of envy.  The pastor is standing before you, a rich man, as someone who is supposedly closer to God than you are.  Is that their only proof, that they're rich?  Is that how you know how a person is blessed from On High, by the size of their bank account?  That's an interesting implication, because the richest people in the world don't appear to be particularly godly.