And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them, for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.     Matthew 6:7-8 NKJV

These are the words Jesus spoke just before teaching us how to pray in what many refer to as the Lord’s Prayer. It’s actually considered to be a model for prayer and I would like to spend some time over the next few days talking about this model and how we should use it. But before we get started, I want to clear up one thing.

We are often told to be fervent or persistent in our prayers. I can tell you that my prayers from childhood into my 30’s always included a prayer for my dad to be saved. I was 40 years old when he finally accepted Christ as his Savior. This is persistent prayer. We are told to be persistent in our prayers and never give up.

Vain repetition is a whole other matter entirely. Vain repetition is the repeating of words or phrases over and over until they become more of an incantation rather than a prayer. It’s praying the same words so often that we tend to not even really think about what we are saying, we are just repeating the same words we have for years.

Saying the Lord’s prayer or the model prayer Jesus taught us to say can even become vain repetition when we just repeat it to be repeating it without even giving any thought to what we are saying or not really meaning what we are saying.

Jesus taught that prayer should be done in secret. There is a time to pray in public like in meetings and services. There is nothing wrong with public prayer as long as we are not doing it for personal recognition. Our prayer should always be about bringing honor, glory and praise to our heavenly Father.

Prayer should be continual. We make many decisions throughout the day. We should be acknowledging God about all these decisions. We are told in Proverbs 3:5-6 that we are to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding. We are told to acknowledge Him in all we do and He will guide us on the right paths. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 we are told to pray without ceasing. Our prayer should be an ongoing continual conversation with our Lord and Savior. We speak to Him through prayer and He speaks to us through His Holy Word.

While we should always have a reverential awe of God and never treat Him like a buddy or a pal, we should acknowledge Him as our heavenly Father. We should keep an open line of communication through prayer and Bible study. When you talk to a relative or a friend, you don’t habitually say the same words and phrases over and over and you shouldn’t do that when you speak to God.

The most important thing we should remember about praying is that our prayers should come from our heart. God sees our heart and He knows what is in our heart. He still wants to hear it from us. Talk to Him as you would speak to a beloved relative.

Don’t pray incantations to Him, pray what is in your heart.

Have a great day!