In the course of my life I have listened to a whole lot of sermons. Some were good, some were bad, some were life altering, and most of them I just don’t remember. But sometimes things the preacher says stick out. Strange examples, interesting stories, unusual scriptures. I have heard a sermon about some parts of the genealogy in Genesis. (But I don’t remember the point of it.) I heard electricity being used as an example, when the preacher obviously had no idea, how it works. (I was so embarrassed for him, that I don’t remember anything else he said.) And I heard numerous sermons, that followed the pattern “I was such a bad person. Let me tell you, what kind of bad person I was. I have so many stories of me being a bad person. Here are some more stories. But now I’m a christian. The end.” (These testimonies are unfortunately often lacking the cool stuff they did with God. It’s like they want to say: Everything is boring since I found Jesus.)

I like being truthful. For myself, but also in others. I love it, when a yes is in fact a yes and a no a no. I know, where you stand. And you know, where I stand. No room for interpretation, no wild guessing. That is one of the reasons I hate click bait. “The five best musicians in the Beatles. Number 6 will surprise you.” Even writing crap like that myself makes me slightly angry. But there is a phrase in sermons, that always triggers a reaction in me. It is the bait, I always take. Mention it, and you will have my undivided attention. Every. Single. Time. And that is the notion, that there is a prayer, almost to dangerous to pray.

God loves us. As simple as that sounds, everything can be derived from that. It is so easy, a toddler can understand it. And yet, it is so deep, we will never be able to fully grasp its meaning. So when I heard for the first time, that there are dangerous prayers, I couldn’t understand it. How should anything, that I say to my ever loving Father be bad for me? I mean, yes, I could say “I don’t want anything to do with you!” That would be quite bad on an eternal scale. But so far I have not heard that being mentioned as a dangerous prayer. The first however was: God, do what you want with me. I get, why people consider it dangerous. I allow God to push me out of my comfort zone. But isn’t that, where adventure awaits us? And how shall God in His Love ever do something bad for us? When God causes a situation that feels bad, we can still trust His Faithfulness and Love, that it will be good for us and others in the end. So of course I prayed that. In fact, I made it my daily prayer. God, Your Will not mine be done. Yes, that very prayer took Jesus to the Cross, but wasn’t that the best thing that ever happened? For everyone. Including Jesus.

For quite some time, I thought, that is it. There is one prayer, Christians try to avoid. And when a preacher mentioned a dangerous prayer, I knew, what was coming. Until the day, I found the second one. (So now I’m waiting to see if there is a third. But so far, nothing.) And this one is: God, reveal to me my sins. The preacher had prayed it once and was still recovering. (It sounded like Basil in the Fawlty Towers episode “the Germans”. “Don’t mention the war! I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it alright.” Well, he didn’t.) Of course I immediately made that a part of my daily prayer. It got a small upgrade, when I heard it as: God, reveal my heart to me. That sounds so much nicer. I mean, God, do we have to talk about my sin? Another version was (after reading a lot of Kings and Chronicles): God, show me the high places, where I worship someone or something other than you. I think, you get the idea. I added asking for God’s help in getting rid of everything that stands between Him and me. Because asking for His help is always a good idea.

So the question remains: What happened? Is it really that dangerous to pray those prayers? I guess the answer depends on what you like. If you like adventure and want to see God change your life, the answer is a big NO. I even believe, that both attitudes are necessary to grow in God. You probably don’t have to pray them out loud. It can help though. And does praying that turn your life into a roller coaster at times? Definitely. But to be honest, I wouldn’t want it any other way.