Is God a cosmic Santa Claus?

A while back, I was sitting in a Sunday night service at a campus ministry in Charlotte. While I was listening, Justin Wallace, a friend and local campus minister, explained that many Christians often approach God in prayer as a kind of “cosmic Santa Claus.” This created an interesting image in my mind. I pictured a seven-year-old me sitting on Santa’s lap with my Christmas list ready. I remember seeing him as larger than life, as magical, and--most importantly--as the one who would grant all of my Christmas wishes for toys and candy. I started wondering if this was the way I approached God.

Sadly, I believe this idea is, in fact, true. When we approach God in prayer, it is too often with a long Christmas list of demands and wishes. Although we are God's children, and it pleases God when we approach Him with a child-like faith, I don’t think God intended us to come to Him in prayer with a “Dear Santa” list of demands.

Let me explain...

For college students, our prayer life sometimes amounts to nothing more than the occasional, “God, please let me get a good parking spot so I’m not late for class,” or better yet, “God, please let me know all the answers on the test” (even if we haven’t studied). Many of us only approach Him when we need Him to do something for us. I know that occasionally I am guilty of letting my prayer life slip into simply asking God for little favors.

But this is a something that applies to everyone, not just college students. We pray for better parking spots, for better jobs, for a million dollar check to show up in our mailbox. It seems like prayer, for many Christians, has become more about what God can do to serve us, rather than what we can do to serve God.

Thursday, May the 7th marks the National Day of Prayer. I propose that, as professed followers of Christ, we take this time to examine our own prayer lives. How often do we take time just to thank God for who He is and for all He’s done in our lives? How much time do we spend asking God to bless others versus how often we ask Him to bless us?

In Matthew 6:9-10, Jesus says, “This, then, is how you should pray”: 

Our Father in heaven,  
hallowed be your name,  
your kingdom come,  
your will be done,  
on earth as it is in heaven.

As you can see, this is only the first part of the Lord’s Prayer. However, it is enough to see that, when Jesus said this is how we should pray, he began by first acknowledging the greatness of God and the importance of His kingdom and His will. How often, when we pray, do we just acknowledge God for who He is? How often do we really meditate on, and desire, His will for our life instead of our own will.

I am not suggesting that God is not interested in what we, as His children, desire and need. But it is true that He already knows what we need and want before we even ask. In short, what I am saying is that we each need to examine how much of our prayer life revolves around us, and only us, and what steps we can take to make our prayer life stronger.

Perhaps this is something to pray about.