The Prayer Game

If you are a Christian, you will especially relate to the satirical game below, but everyone is invited to participate.

I am going to give a lesson about the excuses we make to keep from praying and the distractions that come our way. Imagine you are playing a board game, one that moves pieces across from start to finish and imagine that along the way you are picking various cards with various instructions, much like Monopoly. The rest should explain itself.

I hope you enjoy it. The game is based upon the following scripture:

Phil 4:6-7

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Diagram of scripture above:

PROCESS: Prayer and petition with thanksgiving

RESULT: Peace of God which passes all understanding.

What is a petition? A well thought out, well worded request

The Prayer Game: (updated version)

Object: To have a quality time of prayer, focused, uninterrupted, which includes petitions and leads to the peace which passes all understanding.

To achieve this goal, one must roll dice, travel across the game board and eventually reach the Peace Which Passes All Understanding Square.

To start, you may choose the straight and narrow path or the scenic route

-Because the straight and narrow path calls for too much discipline and focus, you choose the scenic route.

-You roll a three. Move toward the first Excuse Square. Draw an Excuse Card

Excuse card: “I already prayed today at breakfast when I gave thanks for the food. And I really felt close to God at that time. Perhaps that’s all the prayer I need today.”

-This excuse leads to conviction. Draw a conviction card.

Conviction card: “Hey lamo. You need the prayer and you know it. Keep rolling, bucko.”

-You roll a 7. This takes you to the instruction square. Draw an instruction card.

Instruction Card: Take some time today and visit a place of seclusion, a park, a beach, a cathedral and have a quality time of prayer.

-You notice that the Secluded Place square is in the same direction as the Peace Square. However, your mind is in an excuse mode due to the previous excuse card which made it harder for the Spirit to work in your heart. You must roll a 5 to get into the Secluded Place square.

-You missed it. Instead you rolled a four. You landed on another Excuse Square. Draw another Excuse Card.

Excuse Card: “I’m awfully busy today. I really don’t have the time to go to a secluded place. But work is also sacred unto the Lord.”

-Since this is your second excuse you must receive a penalty. Draw a Penalty Card.

Penalty Card: Go back 3 spaces.

-You have landed on the Barrier Reef square. Your excuses and laziness have built a barrier between you and God. A week goes by without prayer.

-Since one can’t go without prayer a week without feeling conviction draw a Conviction Card.

Conviction Card: Your own personal weather report: “50 percent chance of dark sinful clouds coming toward your coast off the Sea of Iniquity.”

Since nobody likes conviction, draw a Conscience Searing card. This card will enable you to ignore the conviction.

Conscience Searing Card: “Lord, Those clouds don’t look so dark to me. Besides, since there’s a 50 percent chance of rain, there is also a 50 percent chance of a clear day. So what the report is definitely saying is that there’s a 50 percent chance of a clear day.”

-Your response to the conviction involved another penalty. Draw a Penalty Card

Penalty Card: “Go to the Sea of Iniquity. Go directly to the Sea of Iniquity. Do not pass All Understanding. Do not collect peace.”

–Sea of Iniquity is hard to get out of. To get out, you must roll doubles.

-You don’t roll doubles.

-Sin leads either to conviction or excuse. You will get out during your next turn and the roll will take you either to a conviction square or an excuse square.

-Your roll takes you to Excuse Square. Draw an Excuse Card.

Excuse Card: “Define Sin.”

-This nutty excuse makes it impossible to take a conviction card for three more turns. Take a Numbing Card instead and numb yourself to conviction.

Numbing Card: “Life is great. God is on his thrown. It seems God had something he wanted to tell me, but I can’t remember what it is. Oh well. It probably wasn’t important or he would tell me again.”

To get out of this Numb State you need the intervention of a third party. You need fellowship and accountability. Take a Fellowship Card.

Fellowship Card: The pastor preached about prayer in church.

-Draw a Response Card.

Response Card: “Oh come off your high horse!”

-Wrong Response: Go back to the Sea of Iniquity.

-Try to roll doubles to get out

-You roll doubles! You land on the Instruction Square. Take an Instruction Card.

Instruction Card: Have a quiet time now. Roll one for Obedience Square or 2 for Excuse Square. You roll a one. But since it has been so long since you’ve obeyed your obedience skills are rusty. You agree to pray but not effectively. Draw a Miserable Excuse For a Square Card:

Miserable Excuse for a Prayer Card: “Lord, Bless me this Day, Forgive me my sin.”

-Draw a Prayer Critique Card

Prayer Critique Card: A little brief, wasn’t it? What are the specific sins you’re guilty of? Which blessings do you want?”

-You have lost your incentive to cultivate a relationship with God. Draw another Excuse Card.

Excuse Card: “Gee, I didn’t get much out of my quiet time yesterday, so why have one today?”

-This excuse takes you to the Square of Distraction. Draw a Distraction Card.

Distraction Card: “You know. Lately reading Popular Mechanics does more for me than reading the Bible.”

-Distraction takes you back in the direction the Sea of Iniquity. But it takes a while to get there. Various Excuse Squares are landed upon along the way. With each Excuse Square, you draw an Excuse Card.

Excuse Card: “You know, Sometimes I see more love in the lives on non-believers, than Christians.”

Excuse Card: “You know? Christians can be awfully closed minded at times.”

Excuse Card: “God, You understand my unique personality, my unique weaknesses, and my unique hormones. Basically, you understand that I’m unique.”

-You continue to move in the direction of the Sea of Iniquity. Fortunately there is Deliverance Square along the way.

-You land on the Deliverance Square. You may choose either a Fellowship Card or a Memory Card. Also, since you rolled doubles you may draw two more cards if one doesn’t work. You draw a Fellowship Card.

Fellowship Card: The importance of obedience is being discussed at church.

-You don’t like the discussion. You exercise your option to draw two more cards: The first is an excuse card:

Excuse Card: Those Christians are always talking about money and always arguing over unimportant matters. Why should I listen to anything they say?

-This excuse puts you in the direction of the Sea of Iniquity. But since you were allowed 2 extra cards, you may now draw a Memory Card if you so desire.

-You do not so desire but something tells you it might be a good idea to draw a memory card anyway.

Memory Card: You are reminded of what it was like to be close to God. His comfort, His forgiveness. You decide to pray today: Turn around and move in the direction of the Peace Square.

-You land on a Delay Square. Draw a Delay Card

Delay Card: “I’ll pray after dinner.”

-each delay sends you to an additional Delay Square earning an additional Delay Card.

Delay card: “There’s a good movie on TV and it’s a movie with good morals and family values. Surely God will approve. I’ll pray later:

Delay Card: I’m awfully tired. I’ll pray first thing in the morning so that I may focus with a keen mind and give God the attention he deserves.

Delay Card: I overslept. I need to hurry to work. I’ll pray when I get home this evening, sometime before I go to bed.”

-These excuses put you in a rut. Go to the Den of Rutness.

-You must roll doubles to get out of the Den of Rutness.

-You don’t roll doubles. Draw a Rut Card

Rut Card. Jesus died for us. We should pray. We should share our faith. Always the same old thing. Been there, done that. Christianity isn’t exciting anymore. Christianity to me is. Well it’s a Big Rut.

-This time you roll doubles. Head toward the Peace Square. On the way, your weakened Rut Condition leads you to another Excuse Square. Draw an Excuse Card.

Excuse Card: “God I’m such a sinner. I don’t have a right to pray.”

-Draw a Critique Card

Critique Card: “Of course you’re a sinner. Of course you don’t have a right to pray. Pray anyway.”

Even though it makes no sense at all you are seriously thinking of praying. But because of your previous track record you first decide to take a good detour to the Pre-Prayer Square. Draw a Pre-Prayer Card.

Pre-Prayer Card: You make the following pre-prayer, prayer: “Lord. Give me the exact roll of the dice for the Prayer Square because I know that the Prayer Square leads to the Peace Which Passes All Understanding Square.“

-You get the exact roll needed and land in the Prayer Square

You confess all of your sins

You discuss all of your anxieties job, family, finances, and the world in general.

You make requests and petitions

Now you may move into the Peace Square and receive the Peace Which Passes all Understanding

You have won the game.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE

New International Version NIV

Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.