What about me?

chatting to my french neighbours tonight, one of whom went to what sounds like a pretty average bible study - they read the bible, discussed the passage, and prayed for one another. something that happens very similarly all over the world every day of the week.

but what struck this girl was the selfishness of the prayers - "help me with this exam", "help me with my sickness" and so on. pretty typical really.

so two questions i guess -

1. is this just because we do all the 'big picture' praying at home on our own?
   
2. is this actually an accurate reflection on many of the psalms' prayer patterns - hence worth echoing?

      so then, on:

1. i think probably not, although having operation world as your homepage (and actually praying about it), and/or getting the voice of the martyrs' rss feed can be big helps to praying for things of bigger import than your pet rock's well being.
   
   and regarding:
   
   
2. many of them are selfish - in that they talk about themselves - YET they talk about themselves so as to talk about God. and there are plenty that talk only about God. and they're poems - of course they need some sort of perspective, and it makes sense to talk in the first person - have you ever been around someone who talks about themselves in the third person? very irritating indeed.

however, all this said, i still think my neighbour has a point - we can be selfish, and trivial, unreflective (non-reflective?), and ungrateful in our prayers. and regardless of the context and whatever and whenever else we may've prayed, the way we pray and the subjects of our prayers can say a lot about the motivations for praying, for meeting together, for attending church, for reading our bibles.

i would like to be one in whose spirit there is no deceit. (Psalm 32:2b)