When We Pray
Matt. {6:7} But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. {6:8} Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Praying just to pray is in vain.
Having a set prayer is not good. Maybe a set prayer time is all fine and good, the Israelites would have morning and evening prayers, others were known to pray three times a day. Some were praying often. We are even told to pray always.
Eph. {6:18} Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints
The times of praying can be set without consequence I believe, but having a formal set prayer you pray over and over and over by rote we are told isn't good.
'But when ye pray, use NOT vain repetitions as the heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.'
Much speaking, if you speak long enough you'll be heard isn't true. A whispered prayer spoken once can be heard sooner than a prayer that is spoken loudly over and over. God knows our needs, and it's not that we don't have to pray and ask Him for things, petition Him as it were, but He knows our needs and no amount of pleading and begging, no amount of repetition will matter.
Either by praying by rote - which is something done and not felt, or praying and asking something over and over - being annoying and showing lack of faith, neither one of them are much good and if we get caught up in the trap thinking that we are pious by our much praying and repetitive praying we're not praying as God would have us pray.
Jesus says do not use vain repetitions, do not believe that such praying is the answer. We don't have a deaf God like all the heathen do. We have a living God and He hears us, He knows us. Our God, our Heavenly Father knows us and what we need. We are praying to a living God, the one and only true God. Our prayers must come from the heart.
Jesus goes on to tell us how to pray-- read the Lord's prayer, it's a famous prayer in fact it's one we learn by heart and pray as a prayer just in the manner Jesus tells us not to. 'But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions.' That doesn't just mean saying the same thing over and over and over, it means praying without making that connection we need to make to our living God, the connection that tells us that He hears us, He knows us, He loves us.
No, I'm not saying we shouldn't say the Lord's Prayer, it was given us for an example and as such we should pray it, use it to guide us, but above all- not use it in vain repetition.
May the Lord bless us and keep us, helping us to seek Him as He would be sought. By His will, by the grace and mercy of our Lord and our Savior now and forever.
Amen.
4/24/10
1Co 13:4
Charity suffereth long
and is kind
charity envieth not
charity vaunteth not itself
is not puffed up,
1Co 13:5
Doth not behave itself unseemly
seeketh not her own
is not easily provoked
thinketh no evil
1Co 13:6
Rejoiceth not in iniquity
but rejoiceth in the truth;
1Co 13:7
Beareth all things
believeth all things
hopeth all things
endureth all things.
1Co 13:8
Charity never faileth
but whether there be prophecies
they shall fail
whether there be tongues
they shall cease
whether there be knowledge
it shall vanish away.
1Co 13:9
For we know in part
and we prophesy in part.
1Co 13:10
But when that which is perfect is come
then that which is in part shall be done away.
1Co 13:11
When I was a child
I spake as a child
I understood as a child
I thought as a child
but when I became a man
I put away childish things.
1Co 13:12
For now we see through a glass, darkly
but then face to face
now I know in part
but then shall I know even as also I am known.
1Co 13:13
And now abideth faith,
hope,
charity,
these three;
but the greatest of these is charity.
4/24/11