I do hope I do not sound like a broken record but I am concerned about our conception of prayer. It is important to understand that prayer is talking to God and not to the other people in the room. If we are talking to someone we don’t insult him or her by making references to things upon which they are expert. Recently I listened as a man prayed in public and he continually made Scripture references by quoting the text numbers as if God, the individual to whom he was supposed to be talking, didn’t know the verse numbers in His Word.
The prayer went something like this. “Father we claim the promises you have made to us in I Peter 1 and we want to live lives full of the love you describe for us in 1 Corinthians 13.” Maybe I am being too picky and I am sorry if I am. It’sone of the characteristics of old people. But I get the feeling that public prayer has become another form of preaching to people instead of really talking to God. Maybe he was praying and was just reminding God of the texts in case God forgot. I do not mind being preached to. If it is good I enjoy it. I would even comply and close my eyes if that’s what the preacher wanted. But just don’t think it is prayer. Would we quote verses to Him if we were in our closets praying as Jesus admonished us to do?
“Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, unuttered or expressed, the motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breast.” James Montgomery
Written by Roger Bothwell on September 10, 2008.
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574