Notes from the Wayside: Perspective: Meaningful Words

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Meaningful Words

When you pray, don't pour out a flood of empty words, as the Gentiles do. They think that by saying many words they'll be heard. Don't be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask.

Matthew 6:7-8 (CEB)

Before I bring my need

I will bring my heart

From "First" by Lauren Daigle

Jesus, in His most famous sermon, instructs us not to "pour our a flood of empty words" when we pray, implying that some people seem to believe that the more they speak the more likely they are to be heard by their deities. According to N.T. Wright, "We know from many writings and inscriptions that many non-Jews did use multiple formulae in their prayers: long, complicated magic words which they would repeat over and over in their anxiety to persuade some god or goddess to be favorable to them."¹ Jesus says that our God already knows what we need, even before we pray.

I have been taught to not ask God to "be with" somebody, for to pray such a prayer is to imply that God is not already with the person.² Perhaps it could be said that, for any situation that happens to be on our hearts, God is already there because God already cares. If God is already at work in any situation we might lift up to God in prayer, then our prayers do not really persuade God to act. Knowing that it is not our responsibility to somehow convince God to act should take a great weight off of our shoulders.

Am I trying to suggest that our prayers do not make a difference? No, I am suggesting that maybe prayer works differently than we might typically think. I think that prayer functions in at least three ways. First, prayer is an act of love. When we pray for a person, we are practicing love for the person from afar by keeping him or her in our hearts and in our minds.

Second, prayer is an act of trust. When we lift up a person or a situation to God in prayer, we are admitting our lack of control in the matter and entrusting the matter to God. St. Paul writes, "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."³ Similarly, St. Peter writes, "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you."⁴ We do not need to be anxious, because we can be confident that God is already at work.

Third, prayer is an act of alignment. Prayer, I think, is not meant to get God to act but rather to align our hearts with the heart of God. As Jonathan Tompkins, one of the pastors at my church, likes to say, "Prayer is not about us getting God to do what we want God to do. Prayer is about God getting us to do what God wants us to do."⁵ Adam Hamilton suggests, "Most often God works through people, calling us and nudging us into action, working in our hearts and lives to be the instruments to answer the prayers of others."⁶ The more closely our hearts are aligned with the heart of God, the more we allow God to work through us and not merely in spite of us.

When Jesus instructs us not to pray with an abundance of "empty words," He goes on to offer us a relatively simple prayer we now know as the Lord's Prayer. In my time of morning prayer, I rely heavily on written prayers, and, in my opinion, the very fact that Jesus gives us a prayer to pray legitimizes the use of such prayers. Personally, I tend to get stuck in my own little world, so I need written prayers to help me keep in my heart and in my mind what I might otherwise ignore. For example, "A Litany for the Church and for the World" from the Book of Common Prayer prompts me to pray for Church unity, global politics, environmental care, the people closest to me, those who are suffering, and those who have died.⁷

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not bring us to the time of trial,

but rescue us from the evil one.⁸

Consider what we can learn from the prayer Jesus taught us to pray. In this prayer, Jesus teaches us to turn our attention to God before offering up our concerns. First we glorify God's name and pray for God to reign on the earth, and then we entrust to God our needs of the present, our regrets from the past, and our anxieties for the future.⁹ Would we really pray in this way if we were not taught to do so, or would we start with our wants and needs?

I would offer one warning about praying written prayers. If a prayer becomes too familiar, one might start rattling it off without even thinking about it. In this way a written prayer can become nothing but "a flood of empty words." It might be helpful to use books containing a large number of prayers, like the Psalms or the Book of Common Prayer. Typically, I pray the Psalms for the week along with prayers from my denomination's hymnal and book of worship.

If prayer is indeed meant to transform us, then we need to learn how to pray well from the people of faith who have gone before us. When we pray, we entrust to God the people and the situations that weigh heavily upon our hearts. We can rest assured that God is already aware of those matters and that God is already at work in those matters. As our hearts grow more aligned to the heart of God through prayer, we give God the opportunity to work through us in such matters.

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