If God were to email you a transcript of your conversations with Him, how would they read?
If we're being completely honest with ourselves, I think a lot of them would look something like this:
Me: "God, you are so awesome and I don't deserve all that you've done for me!"
Me: "Thank you for this, this and that!"
Me: "Please give me this, that and this."
Me: "Please do that, this and this for me."
Me: "Father, thank you for all you do for me. In Jesus' Amen!"
Seeing it written out, doesn't it look a whole lot like a compliment sandwich? If you've never heard of a compliment sandwich, here's the skinny... In corporate leadership, you often use a compliment sandwich to achieve a desired outcome from an employee. Say "Jim" isn't making enough sales calls and you need him to step it up. In todays workplace, everyone is so worried about feelings that you can't just tell Jim that he needs to step it up. Instead, you have to make Jim feel good while at the same time strategically "motivating" him to adjust his performance to achieve a desired outcome. This is where the compliment sandwich comes in. You sit down with Jim and say, "Jim, I heard you on the phone earlier and you've really got a gift for communicating with people (compliment). If you increased the amount of calls you make each day by 20%, you could easily be our top salesperson (desired adjustment). By the way, great job on closing that Smith deal (compliment). Another term for a compliment sandwich is... you guessed it, manipulation.
God knows the condition of our hearts at all times. He knows your needs and desires even before you speak them. Don't manipulate your Creator by attempting to dazzle Him with praise and thanksgiving if your primary objective is just to get a desired outcome. Now, I’m not saying that we should just pray our wants and desires, rather we should check our hearts. When we are “mansion” minded our prayers look more like a Christmas list to Santa than surrender to and admiration of our Almighty Father. But when our hearts are set on the Kingdom, our prayers will be centered around God’s will, His glory, and our obedience to reaching the lost.
Let us focus on the Kingdom and not the mansion!