Hi, well, I’ll admit, it is a problem that many people have, whether it’s because they actually believe they’re supposed to babble, or because they just don’t know how to talk to God.
Telling God What to Do
The pagans used to pray in such a way where they would often try to “tell” God what to do. You might actually hear people praying like that today, also. For instance, there’s a Christian song where they say to God, “Show me your light, show me your mind, show me!” I’ve also heard people almost commanding Jesus to do something. I think it’s meant as a means of showing their faith to Him or something, but technically-speaking, it’s just how the pagans used to pray to their gods, and it’s not how we’re to pray to God.
Instead, when we approach God in prayer, there needs to be a sense of humility. Think of how people of old would approach a powerful king. I realize that such is pretty difficult to Imagine in today’s age, where people bad-talk the president, their bosses, teachers, and other people in leadership, but Nehemiah’s request from King Artaxerxes shows a great example of humility before a king.
Saying More in Prayer
Pagans also thought that the more they said, the better the chance that God would answer their prayers. This was always odd to me though, since Jesus said that the Father knows our heart and what we need before we ask, so why would we need to talk or explain more? We don’t – it’s just babbling.
How To Avoid Babbling
So how do you avoid babbling while in prayer? Well, Jesus gave several examples of how to pray, for instance, the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6. Now, you may notice that many churches will actually read this prayer word-for-word in unity — that’s not Jesus meant when He said, “Pray like this.” Instead, Jesus was telling us to use it as an outline to help us pray –
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Start off addressing God as Father (intimacy in prayer).
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Praising Him for who He is and what He’s done
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Recognizing His glory and desiring His rule over the earth and such.
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Making your requests (daily bread, forgiveness, rescue from evil)
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Recognizing our responsibilities to obey Him and be holy, as He is holy (forgive us in the same way that we forgive others who are indebted to us (sin as a debt in Matthew, sin as a trespass in Luke)
So you see, God already knows our hearts and knows what we need before we ask, so there’s no reason to babble on in prayer.
For more understanding on how to pray, click here.
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