Babbling on like pagans
Megan raises an EXCELLENT point in her most recent blog.
In response to Matthew 6:7 “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” (The Lord’s prayer follows this…)
Am I reading this wrong? It wouldn’t be the first time. My heart tells me that praying in groups pleases God as much as praying alone, silently. Yet there are times when people are praying aloud that I begin to get the feeling that they are speaking not to be heard by God, but by the rest of the group and/or themselves.
GREAT QUESTION MEGAN!
I have a feeling the Christ meant this when he said it. And I also get the feeling that we ignore this COMMAND of Christ’s quite often in our prayer meetings.
First, the thing I find most ironic about this passage is that it is THE MOST BABBLED PRAYER OF ALL TIME IN CHRISTIAN HISTORY!!!! The devil is laughing.
battologeo - (babbled words) a word describing stammering of words (blah blah blah… mindless repetition such that you aren’t thinking about the words you are saying)
polulogia - (many words) notice how close this is to “polution words”? It’s not an accident. Means just “volume of words” or, uhh… “many words”.
Megan brings up another point though: “preachy prayers”, people giving a mini sermon under the guise of praying it to God, when in fact they are (consciously or not) addressing the people present. Both of these things, (many words, and preachy prayers), are, I think indicative of two problems. Here’s what I think:
Babbling prayers
I propose that the reason we tend to go on and on and on in our prayers (and face it folks, we do, listen the next time you are praying at a prayer meeting), is due to a number of things, not the least of which is not really thinking about what you are praying for. This causes both the babbling (reciting prayers from rote, or just speaking without thinking) and the polulogia - many words (not having thought about what you want to talk to God about…)
We are asked to “petition” God with thanksgiving. Not come in with no clear idea of what we’re asking for and start lobbing prayers towards God.
I think that reciting prayers from rote, just for the sake of reciting a prayer is a very spirtually dangerous thing. And it seems best to me that if you don’t know what to pray for, it might be best to sit in silence and simply pray about what to pray for, and then shut up and listen…
Preachy Prayers
I hate these the most, and am also the most guilty about them.
The reason we do this is because we know we want to encourage the group with a thought, a verse or passage, a challenge, or a rebuke, but we don’t know that we should (or we are too timid to) address the group itself! That is just as biblical as praying in a group.
My challenge to you (and me) the next time you are at a prayer meeting (and please go!) and feel like God has given you something to share with the group, don’t couch it as a prayer, just address the group! It makes for a fun “rocking the boat” type of experience. :) If you find yourself in the middle of a prayer and realize that really you are talking to the group, stop acting like you are praying to God and switch gears, just address the group. We are asked to do this as well :)
I would love feedback on this topic. I can always do with some good balancing points…
I guess, all that aside I have just one point. If you have to, forget everything I wrote here and:
PRAY, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE!!
good points megan and matt!
sarah and i have been talking about this alot lately, because when we pray together i like to pray out loud, and she prays silently.
at first it was wierd because she felt like i was dissapointed with her not praying out loud, and i felt like she was just humoring me, and not really praying. now what we’ve realized is that i need to pray outloud to organize and communicate my thoughts better to God, and she prays internally because she thinks more clearly than she speaks.
this made alot of sense to me when i remembered we’re talking to God, not each other.
i have another thought though, matt:
“The reason we do this is because we know we want to encourage the group with a thought, a verse or passage, a challenge, or a rebuke, but we don’t know that we should (or we are too timid to) address the group itself! That is just as biblical as praying in a group.”
“biblical”, yes. that’s very true. appropriate for the situation, not always. i know alot of the things God places on my heart is mostly something I need to deal with, and while it may me a great thing for others (at least in my mind), it can also be distracting for them. “rocking the boat” during prayer time usually makes it harder to connect with God, at least in my experience. the last thing i need is less peace.
Discussion Question:
Could it be that one of the reasons we “babble” is because of over-emphasis of our relationship with God and underemphasis of his… well, God-ness? If prayer is viewed as a chat with a buddy, it certainly seems that long, scattered conversations would follow.
Note: just a question, not an answer. Discuss amongst yourselves without being offended.
I call it the “pastor prayer”, though it’s not just pastors that are guilty of this, and not just wannabe pastors, but i think a lot of people who have been around for a while can fall victim to this temptation, I know I have and as hard as I try not to, i still can.
I have been in group prayer when someone starts praying but before you know it they are giving a mini-sermon to the rest of us. I know this distracts me in a major way.
I think doing the “mini-sermon” prayer can be effective in the right setting. For instance, if You are in front of a large group of people “leading” them in prayer, i think it is good to speak what is on your heart for those people to God, because for some they may not be able to articulate what they feel or need, but you might speak something to the Lord that God uses to connect to that person and in an instant they feel just as connected to God as anyone else.
As far as babble prayers… those are frustrating if they are coming out of an undiscerning heart, but if someone just has trouble with words or tends to carry on naturaly I’ll usually try to grant some extra grace… but we all know that some people carry on just for the sake of carrying on, and in that I think we jeapordize our fear of the Lord and try to bring him down to our level, though he chooses to come to our level, we shouldn’t try to demand it of him or try to put him below us by our careless words…
just my quick thoughts ;o)
This is a good topic to bring up. Everyone needs to pray- I thnk we would all agree on that. And, perhaps there are times when we have found ourselves babbling or preaching- then we need to recognize that in ourselves and take it to the Lord in prayer and confess (personally, not necessarily in the group). However, we need to be careful not to judge others in their prayers. It is hard to know what is going on in the heart of a person when they pray. Some people have flowery prayers, some have simple prayers- that does not make one prayer more sincere or less preachy than the other. So pray your hearts out in private or in groups (Matt 18:20) and trust that God hears our prayers.
Thanks to everyone for your thoughts!
I think I hear a lot of this babbleprayer, but then again this perception could be influenced by my tendency to want to be as short, succinct, and efficient as possible. I think I see this type of verbal prayer happening when in the presence of others, when feeling the need to satisfy our worldly desires of positive image by impressing those around whom we pray. My difficulty is in trying to maintain a positive heart in the presence of this babbleprayer. What can I do? If I can’t do anything, then I start having negative thoughts, even if the person in question has right intentions.
“Babbling like the pagans” could mean to pray in a language foreign to God, in a sense a language that communicates nothing to God. The only true language of prayer is the language of faith, a heart that speaks to God out od a deep trustand a great desire to know form God what it is God wants to give.
After all the person of faith believes that God already knows what he needs before he ask. Therefore the prayer God hears is the prayer of those who only have a question for God: What do I need from you today?l