I have been wanting to post about this for ages, but could not find the book I was thinking of – but this may be part of the concept:
“YARPING Stuart Brisco
Stuart Brisco came up with a great acrostic for those wanting to know how to pray
P = Praise
R = Repentance
A = Ask for others
Y = Yourself
Sometimes people get this backwards. But that isn’t praying… that’s yarping.”
It was about 35 years ago that I read a book shortly after I became a Christian in 1975, where the unusual theory of YARPing was first introduced to me. I have always remembered it. I don’t remember the name of the book, however, but seeing this quote inside the very long page on prayer that came up when I googled “yarping”, causes me to assume it was a book I owned. I tend to remember that acronym, however, whenever I go to pray, as by nature I do believe we tend to pray in the wrong order.
It is difficult at times to put first things first, the P, for Praise, and just Praise God. It turns usually into asking, or for yourself, or, less often, repentance, (which should be #2 and instead probably is last or close to it) and you have to purposely direct your mind back to praising. It can also be hard to praise when everything is wrong and so difficult. But I am so thankful for this acronym that I read about 35 years ago, in most likely a book by Stuart Briscoe, and hope I will always remember to pray and not yarp.
And do check out more of the prayer site, there are some really cute things on there as well, like this:
“KIDS SPEAKING TO GOD
One little girl began her prayer like this: “Our Father, who are in heaven, hello! What be Thy name?”
A boy who thought he knew the answer to that question, prayed, “Our Father, who art in heaven, Harold be Thy name.”
The prayer of another boy went like this: “Our Father who art in heaven, Hollywood be Thy name.”
A girl whose visiting uncle was a horse player bowed her head with a plea that God “give us this day our daily double.”
A five-year-old girl who was trying to cope with Sunday School and kindergarten at the same time came up with this charming blend of Church and State: “Give us this day our daily bread,
and liberty and justice for all.”
Another kindergarten child asked God to “give us this day our jelly bread.”
Then there was the little boy who prayed, “Forgive us our dentists, as we forgive our dentists.””
