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Heb 4:15-16
When I was a little boy, just about every night at bedtime I recited the
classic Lay Me Down To Sleep children's prayer. In my opinion; a rote prayer
like that one is okay for getting children started communicating with God.
Jesus' disciples were full-grown men physically. But they were just babies
spiritually. A prayer like the Our Father is a good place for spiritually
immature Christians like Jesus' disciples to begin, but it's not a good place
for them to stay.
"When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a
child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things." (1Cor 13:11)
Now let's take Jesus for example. There is no record of him ever even once
praying the Our Father. In point of fact, when examining Jesus' prayers, it's
readily apparent that he typically prayed in a conversational style instead of
reciting rote. Two good examples of his style are located at Matt 11:25-26
and John 17:1-26. Jesus' style is the style that mature Christians are
supposed to follow as their role model.
"We should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ" (Eph 4:15)
"And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists,
others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of
ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of
faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of
the full stature of Christ" (Eph 4:11-13)
When people have been Christians for some time, and still reciting rote
prayers, I'd have to say that their spiritual growth has been stunted, i.e.
they're not developing properly because they haven't been getting adequate
nourishment.
Christians who've attained "mature manhood" are supposed to pray in
accord with the instructions given at Heb 4:15-16 which reads thus:
"For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our
weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet
without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of
grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of
need."
The Greek word for "confidence" is parrhesia (par-rhay-see'-ah) which
means all out-spokenness, i.e. frankness, bluntness, and/or candor.
Reciting the scripted lines of prayers like Lay Me Down To Sleep, the Hail
Mary, and/or the Our Father is not what I call forthright, nor blunt, nor out
spoken, nor candid. It's actually not much different than one of those Hindu
mystics chanting mantras, or a Jew stuffing pieces of paper in the stone
chinks of the so-called Wailing Wall while rocking back and forth like a
plastic bobble toy and reciting rote prayers from a siddur.
Does anyone speak to their friends, their associates, their spouse, their
domestic partner, their significant other, their doctor, dentist, supermarket
cashiers, or the cops with rote chanting? Of course not. They would write us
off as one in desperate need of therapy if we did. Then why would anyone
speak to God with rote chanting?
Don't you think He looks upon rote chanters as mental cases when they do
that? Of course He does; who wouldn't? How would you like it if everybody
spoke to you like that? Well, He doesn't like it either. God has a higher IQ
than anybody you could possibly name and rote chanters are treating Him
like a totem pole. The Bible's God is a king who deserves far more respect
than a US President yet people are speaking to Him like a tape recorder
rather than the ultimate Sovereign that He is.
Christianity's God is a sentient, sensible person; and we all need to show
some respect for His intelligence.
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