One often hears the cry raised against rote prayers. Christ raised a cry in His day and so did prophets before Him. What is a rote prayer? Must a prayer be read to be rote?
Recently I assigned a class the task of listening critically to the public prayers on campus. They were to listen for meaningless phrases, thoughtless prayers, and also for thoughtful, meaningful, and natural prayers. After giving the assignment, I decided to do it myself. Unfortunately, I had to be away from the campus on Sabbath morning, but I attempted to listen more carefully as much as I could when I could where I could. I was a bit dismayed.
Prayer is said to be the opening of the heart to God as to a friend, yet some of the prayers I heard sounded more like the opening of the mouth only to a nonentity. There was no feeling, no meaning, no direction, and no blessing. Only if one took the time to close his ears and pray by himself did he feel that he had communed with God.
There were a number of questions that this assignment raised for me, among which were the following:
- How much thought had been put into the public prayers? Was there any attempt to relate the prayer to the immediate situation or the immediate subject? A number of the prayers touched on anything and related to nothing.
- What was the Christian experience of the individual who was asked to pray? This comes close to judging, I know, but these questions must be raised by the individual in charge of the service. Is the one chosen to pray one in whom the congregation can have confidence? Can they trustingly follow him as he approaches God? Does he know the way?
- How many pastors and teachers take the time and effort to teach the people how to pray? By this I do not mean to merely tell them to pray but to take the time to dissect prayer and analyze it in all its various aspects. This would take far more than a single Bible study of a prayer meeting.
- Perhaps these two are the most demanding questions: How many of us who lead out in worship are able to speak to God as to a friend ourselves? How far reaching is this problem? We can never hope to work successfully with a person with whom we cannot talk freely, easily, and naturally.
Let us take a few moments to consider some of the problems of prayer. The first is the problem of language. Nobody can tell another person what language he is to use in addressing God. People all around the world talk to God in their native tongue. In English some address God in one way and others in another. What matters is that whichever form is used it should be natural to the user. It is the motive, the emotion, the experience, that makes the prayer reverent or irreverent.
Ellen G. White indicates that familiarity with God in prayer is the result of a very close walk with, and high conception of, God. "Those who live in close fellowship with Christ will be promoted by Him to positions of trust. The servant who does the best he can for his master, is admitted to familiar intercourse with one whose commands he loves to obey. In the faithful discharge of duty we may become one with Christ; for those who are obeying God's commands may speak to Him freely. The one who talks most familiarly with his divine Leader has the most exalted conception of His greatness, and is the most obedient to His commands."—The SDA Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, on Dan. 2:18, p. 1168. Another problem is the tone of the voice.
A third problem is that of relevance. One gets the feeling that as a people we are far too general in our Christian experience. We ask blessings on anything and everything, but we do not get down to brass tacks about the business at hand. Many of my students mentioned this. Prayer should be for the immediate situation, for specific needs.
As an experiment, may I suggest writing our prayers out for a season. This experience helps to make us think of the words we use. We can no longer merely think toward God; we are forced to talk with Him, and to think of what we are saying.
The great need is the ability to be able to speak to God with ease, with freedom, and with effectiveness, and to teach others to do likewise. Until we are doing these two things we are failing in our ministry and in our own Christian experience.
