Have you been to a crusade, a church gathering or youth fellowship of nowadays? Have you noticed how long prayers have become? They are the trend.
And brethren will not take you seriously if you pray a short prayer. Indeed, they will conclude that you don’t know how to pray, lack the words, and certainly the fire of the holy spirit!
The prayer that is seen as satisfying, is the long, 30+ minute prayer, full of evangelical stock-praises that we memorize, tinted with colorful English gibberish and executed with a reverberating voice!
But where could we be getting the point wrong? Or are we not.
What does scripture say?
It is important to remember when you pray, that prayer, contrary to what we think, is not a conversation that we start when go to our knees, lift our eyes and hands to heaven or even just quietly meditate.
Rather it is our response to God who actually speaks first, convicts our hearts and draws us to him long before we requite interest in faithful prayer.
This is what Jesus is here warning us to remember when he says in Mathew 6:7-8:
“When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
In delving too much into stylish long prayers, we our generation is extolling a gentile mentality against which the bible warns.
It was the same spirit that the prophets of Baal had. Calling on their deity “from morning until noon’, limping around the alter (1 kings 18:26), cutting their bodies (1 kings 18:28).
For the Baal prophets at Carmel, their deity was obviously non-existent, so maybe they could be forgiven for trying that much, babbling that much.
For us Christians and children of the Living, God, any such spirit is warned against. Our God listens, our God convicts us first, and calls us towards him.
When we pray, it is because he has initiated the conversation, and as scripture says, our “Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
A model example of a short prayer that many of us have deviated from, but which provides the perfect model we ought to follow, is the Lord’s Prayer, simple, terse, clear.
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be 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 trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
May God Bless You for sharing in His WORD