Popcorn can be a prayer! Who knew?
“Oh Lord, please help me!”
How many of us have said those words? They are short, sweet and to the point. That is a popcorn prayer. A prayer you pray on the fly, in a pinch, at the drop of a hat.
Prayer is simply defined as “words spoken to God”. The concept or idea of prayer is first mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 4:26 which reads, “And to Seth (Adam and Eve’s son) to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.”
There are 85 recorded prayers in the Bible. The Lord’s Prayer recorded in the Sermon on the Mount, is probably the most famous. It can be found in Matthew 6:9-13 and it states:
“Pray then in this way:
Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed by Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]”
The ultimate guideline prayer
Yes, prayer is and should be our personal, intimate time with the Lord. Talk with Him, show Him reverence and humility. This prayer time can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. Jesus gives this prayer as a guideline. It is not intended that this be what we pray and then we are done. No. He gives it as a starting point, or an outline and we can fill in the blanks. For example, when you get to the line “forgive us our debts”, debts can be and is referred to as sins. So fill in the blanks. List specific sins you need forgiveness for. Make the Lord’s Prayer personal, too. “You’ve given me this day, Lord, please give me my daily bread;…..lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil”. You’ll be surprised how quickly an half hour goes by when you make the Lord’s prayer personal to you, and insert extras.
In the verses before the Lord’s prayer, Jesus instructs that when we pray we are to go into our inner room, and pray in secret, we are not to use meaningless words. (I paraphrased, but Jesus’s full instructions can be found in Matthew 6:5-8)
So how, when and where do you offer a popcorn prayer?
Like I mentioned before; on the fly, in a pinch, when something or someone just pops in your head. A popcorn prayer fits in best when you are in a situation where you cannot bow your head, close your eyes and spend quality, quite time with the Lord. I mean, you can’t very well pray a meaningful prayer for grandma while sitting behind the wheel of your car driving on the highway. I know the Lord does not want you to put your life and the lives of those in the cars around you in jeopardy. This is when you offer a quick popcorn prayer. With eyes wide open, you can say, “Lord please be with grandma right now. You brought her to mind, I don’t know why, but you do, so I lift her up to you.” AND DONE! The Lord hears.
Popcorn prayers can be offered anywhere and at anytime. The mall, the grocery store, walking the dog, and in your car.
Why are they called Popcorn Prayers?
When you hear the word popcorn, what do you think of? What “pops” in your head? Heated corn kernels popping every which way into that delicious light snack we all love. Especially if it has butter on it. And the pop sound it makes when the light, airy snack forcefully emerges from its kernel casing. And then, of course there is the mess it makes if you forgot to put the lid on the pot (if you have ever popped popcorn the old fashion way, you know what I am talking about). But it’s all very immediate. In the blink of an eye, it goes from kernel to puffed goodness. That’s the concept behind calling them popcorn prayers. In an instant, you offer a prayer to the Lord. Granted, you may be stressing about something all day, but then all of a sudden you decide to release yourself of it and POP, you send up a popcorn prayer and give it to the Lord to deal with.
The thing to keep in mind about popcorn prayers, though, is that when you have offered one up, don’t let that be your prayer about whatever the matter was. Later in your day, or the next time you sit down and spend quality, private time with the Lord, go more in depth about what the popcorn prayer was all about. I like to think of it as the Lords way of saying, “hey, I want you to spend more time talking with Me about this.” My mom was a firm believer in that when something pops in your head, completely out of the blue, that usually means quality time needs to be spend on it.
POP!
Has something or someone popped into your head today? Or maybe even just now? Send up a popcorn prayer and see what God can do.
