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Have you ever heard someone pray and pray and pray, and you wondered to yourself if the prayer would ever end? Yeah, me too. That’s not to say all long prayers are bad. There are plenty of inspired drawn-out prayers in Scripture. The problem occurs when we think that length equals quality. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminded us that a simple conversation with God can be powerful.
Matthew 6:7-8
And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Like many of you, I have a dictionary app on my phone where I can get the “Word of the Day.” I love checking out those words and dropping them, when appropriate, into conversation. We had a guy at our church years ago who always used big words. One person told me, “I love it when he teaches. I don’t understand half of what he says, but I love it when he teaches.” A lot of words strung together with some lofty ones peppered in can certainly be impressive to some people, but not so much to God.
In today’s passage the Gentiles had a case of logorrhea (one of my Words of the Day from my app). It means “repetitious speech, incessant or compulsive talkativeness, wearisome volubility.” The pagans just kept babbling on, convinced their gods measured prayer by the number of words.
Jesus said we don’t pray like the Gentiles. Prayer is more than words. Our Father “knows what you need before you ask him.” Prayer is talking to God. We can communicate openly and honestly with him. Jesus reminds us to keep it succinct and simple. We can eliminate the religious phrases and worn-out formulas. Just tell God what’s on your heart in normal language. When we tell God what’s on our hearts, we will never run out of things to say.
Father, some of us need to re-learn how to talk with you. Some of our prayer habits are hard to break. Help us to simply tell you what’s on our hearts—our dreams and disappointments, our failures and fears, our desire to disobey, and our lack of desire to spend time with you. Help us be real and honest. Meet us where we are and then take us where you want us to be. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Thanks for this series on prayer. I really need it. To be honest, I have plenty of time for my iPad and crossword puzzles and sudoku, but leave prayer time to the evening and then I fall asleep while trying to pray.
We have the Holy Spirit, and yet we are so lax in praying. That really puzzles me. Lord help us.