I was studying about prayer yesterday morning, and a thought came to me. What if we Christians prayed to God as the heathen of Bible times prayed to their gods? Remember how the worshipers of Baal in Elijah's time would dance around, beat their chests, and cut themselves? Not that I'm suggesting those things -- no, not at all, for I think that would be offensive to God. But what if we prayed with the same intensity, the same earnestness? I Kings 18:26 says they prayed from morning till noon. That's several hours of intense prayer! Do we persevere in prayer to a similar extent? When I don't see an immediate answer to my prayers, I tend to get lax; I start to lose my earnestness and intensity. What if, like the heathen Baal worshipers, my earnestness in prayer only intensified when the answer didn't come right away?
Then there were the Molech-worshipers. These people even went so far as to sacrifice their dearest earthly possession -- their own children -- in order to appease their god. What if we sacrificed (in a figurative sense) our dearest earthly possessions, not to appease God, but because we love Him, and want nothing to stand between us and Him?
What if?
