“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” (Matt 6:7-8) “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as a man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’ ” (1 Sam 16:7)

Have you ever called someone up and found yourself just pouring out all your frustrations and troubles on them and then simply hanging up? Don’t you think that’s sometimes what God must feel like when we pray? C.S. Lewis has said: “If you are like me, your prayers may fall into four categories. Either they are dry and bland like a piece of old bread, or we repeat the same things over and over like a scratched record, or we treat God like a giant vending machine in the sky where we insert something and expect to get back exactly what we requested. But the devil loves the fourth type of prayer the best – it is the prayer performed out of duty. We pray to prove our faith as if doing some burdensome task like vacuuming an entire unairconditioned house in July. And, eventually, it is this kind of prayer that leads to our ceasing to pray altogether.”

Lewis says his best prayers come when he takes the time “to pour my heart into God’s heart until both become one. To accomplish this I must first be intimately aware of His presence. Think of Psalm 46:10 – ‘Be still and know.’ Secondly we must remember that God hears our hearts, not our words, so don’t worry about the particular words you say. Take encouragement from Romans 8:26-27 that the Holy Spirit will intercede for you as He searches your heart. And finally trust totally in God to do what’s best (Prov 3:5-6). Think of the old deep sea diving suit which required the diver to depend upon an operator in the boat to get him up or down as well as for his air. The difference is that instead of a human operator, we depend upon the Creator of the universe who loves us in the most incredible measure.” (Lewis, “How to Talk to God,” (circa 1955) Of course, we don’t pray because we invented it – we were taught by the Master himself.(Psalm 139:23-24 and James 4:2)

David