“Be careful NOT TO PERFORM YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS before men TO BE SEEN by them. If you do, you will HAVE NO REWARD from your Father in heaven….” Matthew 6: 1 BSB (Emphasis mine)
Yesterday, we looked at the various definitions of prayer and we established that; Prayer can simply be defined as a communication between man and God. It is a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God. Prayer can either be spontaneous or organized form of petitioning and/or thanksgiving.
We also discovered the two basic categories of prayer namely personal and corporate prayers. There are certain protocols to observe when praying, whether they are personal or corporate. These protocols guide both categories.
Matthew 6:5-8 reveals four protocols to observe before praying. We analyzed the verses five to six to reveal the first three protocols which were the motive, the location and the mode of conduct.
Today, we are going to discover the next protocol which is very crucial. Let us consider Matthew 6:7-8.
“But when ye pray, USE NOT VAIN REPETITIONS, as the heathen do: FOR THEY THINK THAT THEY SHALL BE HEARD FOR THEIR MUCH SPEAKING. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father KNOWETH WHAT THINGS YE HAVE NEED OF, before ye ask him…” KJV, (Emphasis mine)
The above scripture suggests that; the third protocol to observe when praying, has to do with the CONTENT. This has to do with how we organize the content of our prayer, more specifically on the overly repetition of words to make the prayer long.
Sometimes we may get the motive, the location, conduct which has to do with the level of sound right but the content of the prayer may be wrong. It is not the length that determines the effectiveness of the prayer. Before prayer is even initiated, God already knows what we want to pray about. Therefore, it is not necessary to stop the unnecessary repetition of our words in order to be heard.
When we fail to observe these protocols, our prayers will only hit our ceilings and return to us void. Most of the time we turn to blame God for not answering our prayers. Other times too, we think Satan and his cohorts are those impeding our prayers.
Beloved, let us try to get all the protocols right and our prayers will be effective. It is not because God is biased to be answering some people and turning down our petitions. Even in the natural, when we present a petition to the Court to rule on a matter in our favour, with the wrong motive, wrong jurisdiction of Court and improper content to merit our case, it is likely our case would be thrown out of the court. Sometimes, even when we get everything right but with improper arrangement of the content can lead to the dismissal of the case.
In our next edition, we will look at how to organize the content of our prayers in order to have effective results. God bless us all.
PRAY WITH ME
Lord Jesus, I thank you this day for my life. From this day forward, I have resolved in my heart to perform my righteous act of prayer in secrecy as I seek to please you. Holy Spirit, please guide me and help me to live this life of Kingdom righteousness. This I pray in the precious name of Jesus! Amen!
Author: REV. SOLOMON LUTTERODT
