Comments on: A Case for Short Prayers

By: wayne52

wayne52 — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:00:39 +0000

I do not think much about prayer being too long, too short or just right. I do consider that it does need to be precise. If we pray for a need for example, we do not need to flatter God or pray longer to ‘dazzle’ Him with our expertise. Our Father wants to hear from us. He wants us to communicate with Him and He with us. If it is a need, cut to the chase and ask. If it is communication, just talking with Him, we need to talk and also listen waiting for Him to talk to us. We would not talk to our friends in the length or flowery way we can talk to God.

When I talked to my earthly dad I could just say what was on my heart that I needed to say and I waited for him to respond. We need to talk to Go in the same manner. When I talked to my dad I knew he heard me. If it was a need I knew I would get it as long as it was good for me. I had faith in my dad so I can surely have faith in my heavenly Father.

By: Maureen

Maureen — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:34:49 +0000

drkennyg, you wrote:-
someone once told me that I should only pray for something or somebody once because if I repeat it I am implying that God didn’t hear me or answer me “right”.
I too was told the same thing, and like yourself I don’t believe this either.
I don’t think repeating this sort of prayer to be repititous, it is heart felt and is not done because we think God doesn’t hear because we know He certainly does. I like to be in communion throughout the day, on and off, Jesus is always only a prayer or thought away.
Thank you Mart.

By: geremyian

geremyian — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:45:09 +0000

I agree totally to what you are saying. I know of churches where certain ministries are required to pray in public each Sunday. The prayers are lengthy and often times repetitive from Sunday to Sunday. Individuals must learn to pray from the heart whether long or short.

By: Brother Larry

Brother Larry — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:23:06 +0000

I thank God for the ability to pray. For there are individuals that have not yet come into the the knowledge that it is important to pray. God knows our thoughts, heart, and needs; however, to acknowledge in pray puts him where he should be in our lives, first and in control. For through the Spirit God is the breath of life we live.

By: tallmark

tallmark — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:19:51 +0000

Just read through everyones thoughts on prayer… Long or short it is good to be able to talk to the Father. Amen

By: Mart De Haan

Mart De Haan — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:40:31 +0000

I appreciate so much the conversation we’ve had over the last couple of days. Am also changing the title to something that more accurately reflects what many of us are saying. None of us would discourage long, from the heart, honest prayers. The issue is more “a case for short prayers” than “a plea for shorter ones” :-).

By: Becky M

Becky M — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:47:50 +0000

desert rose said, I believe our lives should be saturated in an attitude of prayer. Attitude-synonyms are:mental attitude,position,posture. Since God already knows our needs before we ask them it seems to me that he is pleased if we just work on our postures. The Holy Spirit relates what we ourselves can not express because our attitudes,positions,and postures in prayer are weak. Our weakness is God’s strength thru us to work His will. Why not our strength in our weakness in prayer at those imperfect times we can not think to say what we want or feel we need to say to God.

Ok, I think that every thought throughout the day that we knowingly say to God counts as prayer and sometimes just our emoitions spoken tru the Holy Spirit count as prayers. So if we work on our prayer attitude we need not worry or wonder if God is listening to us. Since he reads our hearts we need not be repetitious but He understands our weaknesses if we do feel the need to repeat ourselves because we need to reassure ourselves.

I think that because we are imperfect and weak in our inperfectness, that we don’t have the faith which our Lord is teaching us to have in our spiritual walk with Him,that He asks us to pray perpetually to help build up our faith in Him to hear & answer it.

I personally talk to God like He is right there beside me because He already knows my feelings and if I feel the need to bring it up again in a longer presence with Him later or even another day He understands and is pleased to see & hear how important it is to me. He has said to keep knocking(keep asking)as in the parable of the neighbor who had a visitor at night and asked his neighbor for bread after he and his household already had turned in for the night. So, to me that means that He will not refuse us asking over again because we feel the need and because we may think that maybe He dosn’t realize just what it means to us.

Thank you again Mart, and I’m not saying that spending a long time in prayer is better that short prayers but, it does pertain to the relationship we have with our Lord and is a personal choice.

Those people that watch over Jesus’ flock represent the whole and are apt to make long prayers in edification to the flock. We do say Amen at the end of public prayers agreeing with what was said, do we not? I think we do it personally,too. I know I do.

By: bookbuff1629

bookbuff1629 — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:31:42 +0000

I agree with Mart. Some times I have a problem with prayer and wonder if I’m doing it right. I don’t know if there’s a wrong way if it is heartfelt. I ask the Holy Spirit to intercede and straighten it out if I haven’t said it right.

By: lilu1314h

lilu1314h — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:02:34 +0000

I agree with BruceC, He just wants to talk with us & hear us because He loves us. In the same manner, we would like to talk to God because we love Him.

The concern about prayer during our busiest moment is to draw our attention back to God to check whether we are engaged our schedule according to His will? As scripture says His thought is higher than our thought. e.g. if one of our children has been packed with all kinds of school / church activities, I would like this child to talk to me & how I can help him/her to plan the schedule. I think our Heavenly Father would like us to do the same.

It’s not the length of prayer that counts, it’s the heart of the prayer count as God searches the heart.

We love God by building stronger relationship with Him through prayer.

By: rootsman486

rootsman486 — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:16:23 +0000

Mart, thank you for your insight in opening this question… I hold that what you were doing was asking us to be in a question about prayer rather than providing a solid answer that prayer should be a certain way. I also hold that answers tend to shut me down but questions tend to make me look at all possibilities. The thing I really like about our creator is the remarkable diversity that is present in everything even the responses of this group. I do agree that his instruction was a succinct one but his examples were always ones of great length as in John, all of chapter 17. I love that you raised the issue because I am never clear how I should pray although I truly feel that there are times when I AM PRAYER! Okay, that sounds a little crazy but I am heading to a place with the Father that suggests that we are His Israel when we operate in faith. One subject I would love to hear you touch on someday is the Holy Spirit Living In Us. I think if we operated out of that distinction, our discussions would be very different. Finally, verse 20 of chapter 17 says that Jesus prayed for all BELIEVERS!! I want to live my life in the knowledge that Jesus has prayed for me already. Wow!