“Prayer is the guide
to perfection and the sovereign good; it delivers us from every vice and
obtains us every virtue.”
— Madame Guyon
“The fewer the
words, the better the prayer.”
— Martin Luther
The Lord Jesus counselled us to pray with
reverent brevity. He says, “When you are praying,
do not heap up empty phrases...”
(Matthew 6:7a).
Yet, it’s clear by reflection over most
prayers, especially corporately, that longer prayers are given in a sense to
appease God. It’s a common temptation. Who, for instance, hasn’t felt
self-conscious about their prayer language? Ever felt you’ve performed poorly
in prayer, or can’t pray well?
That’s an accusation from the father of lies.
So often our overblown prayers are motivated in this spirit far from God. Satan
loves it when our prayers are lost for meaning in many words and fake,
manufactured emotion.
The Lord’s Prayer
The essence of a simple, yet powerful prayer
is the Lord’s Prayer.
Jesus must have despised sermonising through
prayer; an insult to the Father by showering a sacrifice of words to impress
God rather than simply love him by true worship.
The version of the Bible I normally read,
the New Revised Standard Version, has the Lord’s Prayer running 57 words in
Matthew’s gospel. That’s a 25-second prayer!
Yet, such a concise prayer encapsulates so
much meaning, and as we pray each of those lines, a richness of meaning is
exigent enough upon our consciousness; we human beings think in simplicity;
complex prayers defeat the purpose.
More and more as we think on the topic of
prayer are we to pray short prayers. In such a way we can pray unceasingly (1
Thessalonians 5:17) connecting our prayers in series. Our days are sprinkled
with thought for our need of God, and others’ need as we’re led. Such thought
converts into spoken and unspoken prayer, and God knows what we need, and wish
to intercede for, even before we think of the words (Matthew 6:8).
Still Not Dissuaded By Long Periods of Prayer
We are still afforded the licence of long
periods of prayer, often combined with meditation and fasting.
The truth is we need prayer to serve us, sending
us toward our needs of God. Whilst there is no sense in verbose prayers just
for the sake of them, long and detailed prayers are appropriate as we press in
on the Lord privately. We don’t pray long for legalistic reasons, we pray long
because of our need of God.
***
Prayer is divine privilege. It is
communication direct with God. We don’t cheapen it by our own efforts; by the
sound of our own knowledge-scented words or by pretence of emotion. We pray in
the effortlessness of the Spirit. Then, our prayers are beautiful.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.
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