"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think 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.From there, Jesus goes on to give his famous example prayer, which matches perfectly his own instruction. I specifically think most about verse six that talks about praying with few words and, frankly, I really wonder as I pray and as I hear others pray, if perhaps we say too much. Truly this is not to be cynical, and I'm not about to go into the debate as to whether or not we need to pray at all, but I really consider why we feel the need to use many words.
Am I the only one that has the conception inlaid within my mind that a lengthy, poetic prayer is a "good one"? I tend to hear from my own mouth and the mouth of others a string of impressive phrases imbued with value, such phrases that often cause those in proximity to proclaim "Amen!" in concurrence to said phrase. I scan over the Lord's prayer and every time I realize just how unimpressive it is, save that it came from the Christ himself; Christ's prayer is thorough to be sure, as he covers thankfulness, humbleness, humility, righteous desire, physical need, forgiveness from God and to others, spiritual need, remembrance and perspective - all in, more or less, sixty words depending on translation.
There is nothing I intend in this thought to do anything other than expand and reconsider the mind on prayer; I do not slander any one form of prayer over another in this, for that isn't my plan or purpose; I just wonder if when we sing, "So let my words be few," if we really mean that or not, and if we could be satisfied in faith to speak humbly in few words to our Lord. There is so much more here that could be said, but for now, I'll let my words be few.
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