in bible college, amongst other things, you learn theology.
theology: the study of God.
there are different sub-sects of theology: Theology Proper (the study of God the Father), Christology (the study of Christ Jesus), Pneumatology (the study of the Holy Spirit) just to name a few. the learning of theology begins to bleed over, rightly so, into other ares of your life. one of those huge areas in life is your prayer life.
at the beginning of the semester you’ll hear lots of “dear God…” then a bit of a shift happens, and about halfway through you’ll hear lots of “dear Go– uh, Father…” that process will continue further and further until you start hearing prayers that start “Father God… we invite your Holy Spirit… in Jesus’ name…”
the name’s they use to address God get more specific.
while this is definitely important, it’s also equally important not to get too wrapped up in that. it’s easy to put too much focus on including all parts of the trinity in every prayer, that all your prayers turn in to nothing but thirty Father God’s in a row.
ever heard someone pray like that? for me, at least, it’s a bit of a distraction.
maybe this will explain it a little better.
those very important distinctions in prayer turn to prayer filler words. ya know? those filler words in speech class we were told not use: um, uh, like, so, ok…
same thing with prayer: Father God, dear Lord, Father God, Daddy, Father God, Father God, Father God, my God, Father God, Father God, Father God, Father God, Father God, Father God, Father God, Heavenly Father, Father God, Father God…
prayer filler words. otherwise known as FGS: “Father God syndrome.”
my intent is most certainly to poke fun at this, but not at all to be blasphemous. it’s a bit of a tight rope to walk. to be clear, i am not at all downplaying the important of recognizing “Father God” in prayer. i think it’s great, and much needed to adjust how we approach the throne room of the maker of all things. i am simply pointing how this can turn into a prayer crutch when they don’t know what to say.
they come to an awkward little pause, and insert a Father God to keep the flow going.
the lesson here? check yourself before you wreck yourself!
let’s keep our FGS in check when we’re praying. no need for filler words in prayer.
prayer is a conversation, not a speech.
