I was working on a project outside the other day, and grandson Herschel, who is 3, was on the porch steps playing with some action figures. He had one on its knees, bowing. I asked him if his little plastic figure was praying. “No, he’s bad guy. Bad guys don’t pray,” he responded. “What’s he doing then, I asked. Herschel replied, “He’s bowing down to his master.” He had it pretty much right, didn’t he? The Bible tells us that “no man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” Man can either bow at the feet of the Lord Jesus, and find in Him the fullness of joy, or he can serve the world, the flesh and the devil, and live the life of quiet desperation.
“This is how we pray,” said Herschel, as he kneeled on the porch step and folded his hands together, “Dear Jesus, thank you for Mommy and Daddy, and thank you for this food, Amen!” “Papa, he said, when we pray, it’s helping God.” Well, actually, it’s a lot more about God helping us. To whom do you bow the knee?
But then too, “bad guys” can pray. They can pray to God for forgiveness and change. They can pray God will change them into “good guys.” 2Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”