Pride is that ugly self-exaltation and self-centeredness of the soul which leads the soul to self-seeking in all things. It is pride that is opposed to God in the holiness of His self-centeredness. It is pride to pray for the things of self rather than the glory of God. It was wicked and sinful for professed ministers to seek the things of self rather than the things of Christ in Paul’s day (Phil 2:21), and it is wicked and sinful for anyone to seek the things of self rather than the things of Christ in prayer or in life in any day. The soul that has not turned from its pride and is not sinking into the depths of humility will not understand the depths of the beauty and glory of God.
“There is no single aspect of religion which may not bear the marks of egocentricity or theocentricity, according as the one or the other of these constitutes the fundamental character of the religious relationship. Prayer, for instance, may be simply the means by which I seek to obtain for myself benefits that are otherwise beyond my reach; or it may express-not least in its petitionary form-my utter dependence for all that I have and am on God alone.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)
The above statement could paralyze a soul for quite some time if it began to see the sin of its own prayers and all of its religious activities because of the motives of self. How many self-centered prayers have we offered? How many times have we simply sat down by a list and offered words for those on the list? Apart from utter dependence of God in prayer as we seek His face and glory there is no middle ground with our pride and independence. We are either looking to God in dependence on Him or we are looking to God in some way with our dependence being on self. That is a vicious act of pride and self-reliance.
For a soul to be utterly dependent on God in prayer is for the soul to have God as its primary motive. In other words, the desires of the soul must have God as its true and main desire. This desire for God can only come from the sovereign and gracious work of God in the soul. Yet without this there is no true dependence on God in prayer. The soul must depend on God for the love which prayer depends on because God is the only source and origin of true prayer. I John 4:7-8 teaches us that we can only love if we are born of God and know Him. This knowing God is the fellowship of God with the soul and His sharing with the soul Himself. Until a soul is broken of pride it will not know what it means to pray in truth. It is possible to “pray” long and hard and yet have it be from nothing but pride. It is possible to pray using the Bible as the words of prayer and still have it be nothing but pride. Until the soul has experientially learned from God its utter dependency on Him for love in its own soul it cannot truly pray because the language of prayer is love. I Corinthians 13 says nothing we do is of spiritual value without love.
The soul must have God in the soul working love for Him in order to pray. The desires of the soul must be for God and must be a desire that is moved by love for God. The words of the prayers must be expressions of the love for God rather than words to get God to do something for self as the real desire for prayer. It is obvious that if our desires in prayer are for self, even if it is for self to fulfill the ritual or prayer, that prayer is then done for the idol of self and is nothing but an expression of pride. The Great Commandment should teach us that if we are to love God with all of our beings all of the time then prayer should be nothing more and nothing less than an act of love for God and a seeking of God Himself. If we do not seek the Lord in our intents and desires in prayer, our prayers are nothing more than religious rituals to get God to do something for self. That is horrid pride.
For the soul to truly pray in utter dependence on God it must also look to God as the only reason He should answer the prayer. That is really what it means to pray in the name of Jesus. We are to pray in utter dependence on Him to answer the prayer based on who He is and to be moved by our prayer because it is for the sake of Christ. But instead, we are given to prayers for ourselves while pleading to God with at least hidden things in the heart thinking that He should answer our prayers because we are worth it or because we have done something to merit the answer to some degree. How horrid our pride is in our prayers. We desire God to answer our prayers that are based out of love for us and then ask Him to do those things for us rather than for His own glory. A prayer that is full of such pride as this is worthy of eternal damnation. In that case we are asking God to be less than holy in order to give us what we are asking for our idol of self. For God to answer a prayer based on love for us rather than Himself would be idolatrous and unholy. Such is pride in prayer. Too often, I fear, that is the real language of our prayers. When even our prayers are hideous acts of pride and idolatry, it is no wonder that Christianity is so weak.
God Loves... Himself 
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