MATTHEW 6:7  But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 

 

     Prayer meetings, while well intended, have a tendency to frustrate me....  Why?  Because so much of prayer is just vain repetition. (Matthew 6:7)  I visualize someone counting beads and repeating the same words over and over and over... for all the days of their life.  That's not what prayer is!  You can teach a parrot to do that.... and get the same results.  Simply to "say" prayers is not to pray.  We teach our children to pray; ..."Now I lay me down to sleep..." at bedtime, and "God is great, God is good, and I thank Him for this food...." at mealtime... but that is to teach them about God, to trust and be thankful.  Don't you think, as an adult, those words would be inappropriate as a means of communication with the Lord?

 

     We've got to learn to just tell the Lord what's on our mind... how we feel about something, ...and ask questions.  We need to talk to Him like He's our best friend, because He is.  As I eventually came to this understanding, the results of my own prayer life changed dramatically.  I expect miracles to happen now....  because I know Him and understand our relationship...

 

     Does prayer work?  Absolutely.  Can you prove it?... Scientifically?  Look at it this way, ...people tend to believe that miracles are only things which science cannot prove.  ...As if to imply that God does not operate in the "scientific" realm.  But then, who gave man knowledge to develop "science" in the first place?  Prayer works in conjunction with science and beyond science...  God is all,.... His is everything.  Without Him, everything that exists would not exist... He holds all things together. (Colossians 1:16-17)

 

     People who claim to be atheists or agnostics often say that some miracles, such as a person being healed of cancer, would have happened anyway (naturally), and that it does not prove that prayer works.. or that anyone actually prays with results....  Really?  Ask the cancer victim...  (Anyone who is sick is a victim of the enemy.)  God does not make people sick.  It's foolish to think that way.  God is Love. (1 John 4:8) ....and, NO, He doesn't "let" Satan make people sick either....  Satan is the ruler of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). but he is not the "ruler" over God or God's people.  Too often we simply let the enemy push us around.. and we don't need to take any of his garbage.  We, through Christ, have dominion over all the efforts of the enemy... but we must exercise our authority.  It's embarrassing and humiliating the way so many "Christians" let the enemy intimidate us.  We have got to push back, resist him... (James 4:7)  

    Prayer meetings do serve a purpose, in that it does bring the body of Christ together in unity.  It's just frustrating how inappropriate and ineffective our prayer life and relationship with God has become...  The power of the entire universe lies within us, and is released through our spoken words....  We have got to move forward with our prayer life to be effective witnesses for God.  The Kingdom of heaven does not advance forward unless we  are stepping forward...

Rick