Matthew
6:7-8
Good
News Translation (GNT)
7 “When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the
pagans do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are
long. 8 Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need
before you ask him.
Pastor James[i]
served in our church while our children were growing up. Our church is large and has a number of
pastors, so Pastor James seldom actually preached. I think he missed this
outlet for his ministry. He was a man who would never say something in twenty
words when it could be said in two hundred. He would officiously patrol the
church and its environs more like a watchdog than a servant of Christ and drive
the kids into their meeting rooms.
When he came on the platform, our children would groan
audibly. We usually sat at the very front of the balcony. Pastor James often
did the Morning Prayer, and one of the children would look at a watch when he
started. Then as his meaningless prayer droned on and on, the kids would get
more and more bored, restless, … and excited. They never timed him for less
than five minutes and would whisper-chatter when he stretched it out to a new
record length.
Somewhere they ran into the quote that “It is often because
secret prayer is neglected that long, tedious prayers are offered in public.”[ii] You
can easily imagine how they seconded this opinion. Ellen White, a prodigious
author of devotional books and sage counselor of the emerging Adventist church,
early chafed under being in meetings where someone prayed for a half hour or
more. When Christ was here on earth, He must have also chafed under some long
prayers in the synagogue, for He included this recommendation on prayer in His
Sermon on the Mount.
Lord, as we pray,
remind us again that our Father indeed already knows our needs; and as we pray
for them we are simply giving Him permission to supply our needs.
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