How do you pray? I
am always amazed at the flowery and endless prayers by worship leaders and
pastors. I’m intimidated when anyone
asks me to do spontaneous public prayer.
Is that what we are supposed to admire and emulate? Why do we do it? The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray and He gave
us a pretty simple prayer, why do we often insist on trying to out do Him?
Prayer is about a heart and mind connection. It’s listening as much as speaking to
God. I don’t think it is for public
consumption primarily, even though we do it that way so often. The “trappings” of religiosity and
meaningless repetition in prayer Jesus specifically spoke against. Those who show off their religion in public
received his censure. In Matthew Jesus
specifically admonishes us to “go in our room” and pray in secret rather than
show off our piousness like the Pharisees did.
At night, sometimes for my prayers I just lay there wordless in bed sort of
basking in God's love…feeling like I'm in arms wrapped around me that I fully trust and who I know belong to someone who has my back and loves me more than anything (kinda like a spouse, which I miss by the
way.)
Is there a time for community prayer out loud? Yes, I think there are specific times and
situations where agreement among the believers in spoken prayer is right. However, I don’t think that is the way we
usually do it with proper thought before hand and for the right motives.
What do you think?
What has been your experience?
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