It is the devil’s master-piece to make us think well of ourselves. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
We can imagine professing churches teaching people to pray in ways that make them feel good about themselves and the prayers are all about themselves because that is essentially what we see in reality. We teach people to pray and to know that God cares about them and that God will do this and do that for them, but is selfishness in the form of prayer really prayer? We teach them to pray for self and the things that concern self, but if self is the idol we all must repent of we are doing nothing but teaching them to pray for the idol of self. We teach them to pray for religious things, but that is rarely done and when done it makes us think we are religious enough. However, even the Pharisees prayed for religious things and religious reasons, but they only did so because of self. “Every man is an idolater, so far as he is selfish” (Richard Baxter). Selfish prayer is idolatrous prayer and that is what the devil loves to hear in the prayers of the religious.
Jesus spoke firmly to the Pharisees and contrasted what they did with true prayer.
Mat 6:5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. 7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. 9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
Why did the Pharisees love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners? It was so that they could be seen by men. Why do many love to stand and pray in the churches, at athletic events, and at political events? It is the same reason that the Pharisees prayed and that was in order to be seen by men. What is the point of being seen by men? It is the heart of self desiring honor for self and for self to be seen as righteous or holy. But this is not limited to one religious and political party two thousand years ago. It is the state of the heart. Satan has worked hard to get people to thinking that thinking well of themselves is okay, but now the churches are full of that type of thing. That thinking well of self is now used in teaching people how to pray and how to get what they want from God, but the heart of that type of prayer is idolatry. In other words, the churches are full of self-centered people who go to church and pray in order that they may obtain the desires of self. On the other hand, Jesus said that we must deny self if we are going to be His followers. So people are being taught to pray in a way that will keep them from following the true Christ. Such a thing sounds outrageous at first, but when the reality starts to sink in the hand of the devil in his deceiving work can be seen.
In the fall the evil one worked his way into the situation and so deceived Eve into becoming like himself in wanting to live by his own wisdom and for his own honor. It took the humility of Christ to take a human body to Himself and so live, suffer and die for the sins of others and raise up a church (the body of Christ and the wife of Christ). But the evil one is constantly trying to work his own image in the churches and this is done by working self-interest and self-love in people so that they will think well of themselves and seek themselves. In other words, he wants people to be like himself and seek the interests of self. When people seek self rather than the glory of God, though indeed they may be deceived into thinking they are seeking God, in fact they are just like Adam and Eve in the Garden who sought self and so the Fall occurred. As in the Old Testament when the evil one constantly sought to get the Israelites to set up idols in the land in order for God to be dishonored, so now the evil one is constantly seeking to have the idol of self set up in the churches. To the degree that men think well of themselves they will seek themselves when in the church or not. Idolatry reigns when self is served rather than denied.
The evil one has many deep roots in the professing Church of today.
God Loves... Himself 
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