Friday, August 7, 2009 9:56 PM CDT
Clergy Views: Do we take our time and choose our words carefully in prayer?
By Kevin E. Wolfe, minister, Broadway Christian Church, Mattoon
“The men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers.” (Acts 15:30-32 NIV)
A memorable Christmas for me was when I decided to give to my immediate family gifts of words. Each of my parents, grandparents, siblings and in-laws received a hand-written, one-page letter from me where I described my relationship with them, noted their unique qualities that I admired, and how I thanked God that they were each such an important influence in my life.
My desire was to “build them up” in love with encouraging words. I wrote in my best penmanship on a neat crisp kind of stationary paper, rolled them up like scrolls, and tied them with red-and-green ribbons.
I invested much of myself in that project. It took a lot of time and thought. I even risked being honest and worried about the embarrassment of not choosing the right word or being misunderstood.
That was many years ago, and occasionally one of my family mentions how much they appreciated that Christmas present.
I have often thought, “Could prayer be our ‘present’ to God at times?” The cloud of incense presented in Jewish worship said to have represented their prayers might also be in our future, as suggested by the Revelation (see Revelation 5:8; 8:3-4).
Might we present ourselves to Him in daily prayers merely to enjoy being with Him and to spend some kind of time with Him in worship? Prayer does not have to be limited to bringing our petitions and praises to Him.
And speaking of that, is our praying truly a “presentation” of words that we have labored over and invested time and effort in, hoping to be honest and not misunderstood, choosing just the right words to talk to God? Too often, we haphazardly just throw something together, don’t we, say at the last minute, and just tell God whatever is on our mind?
If we truly believe that God “hears and answers” our prayers (see Psalm 116:1), wouldn’t we pray more often? Would we not choose our words carefully, and go ahead and ask, so that our joy would be made complete (see John 16:24)?
Many of the Psalms are actually prayers. They are prayers that were sung as songs. You might consider giving a gift of words to God today.
Maybe write out a prayer. Invest yourself in the effort and time needed to choose just the right word(s) and just talk to Him about who He is and what He has done!
Describe your relationship to Him and note His qualities and character and how He is influencing your life. Be careful not to get too wordy, however! Remember that Jesus cautioned in His teaching on prayer: “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” (Matthew 6:7-8 NLT)
May God help you with your “presentation” today!
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