SOLID COMMUNICATION: JUST SAY IT

When you pray, do not say the same thing over and over again making long prayers like the people who do not know God. They think they are heard because their prayers are long. ⁸ Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Matthew 6:7-8

Depending on your age you may be scratching your head looking at this picture, wondering what is that?  It's a record player and a few years back before MP3 and CDs this is what our music was on, vinyl.   That arm with that nose or tip on the end was the needle and it was what read the lines on the vinyl to produce the sound or track.   People use to (and some still do) really pamper their vinyl because if they got scratched (much like CDs) when it would get to certain point in the song it wouldn't go past that.  It would skip or repeat that section of the song.  Now this was embarrassing if you had friends over, and just agitating if you really desired to enjoy that song (privately) and couldn't because of this imperfection.

Jesus was teaching people about prayer during this portion of the Sermon on the Mount and the some folks thought GOD was moved by our motions in prayer.  They thought if they prayed loud enough, or repeated their prayers (like incantations) or would pray long that this was the recipe to getting GOD to move.  NOT SO!  Jesus even told them....don't be like them for Your Father already knows what you need before you ask.   OH that's right....remember GOD IS OMNIPOTENT, He knows EVERYTHING!  Now so how should we pray......(I'll cover that tomorrow) but what I will leave you with today is and excerpt of Elijah's prayer in Kings 18:18-38 NLT (please take some time to read to see how they prayed to their god, and how Elijah prayed to GOD.

" O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,^[e] prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. ³⁷ O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.”

So essentially after 58 words, almost a paragraph of prayer in verse 38 it reads  Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench.  Now I'm not focusing on the response of God because, God's response to your prayer may not be in the same timing or way....but I'm asking you to just look at Elijah earnest prayer and how it wasn't long winded, He honored the name of the Lord, he humbled himself and exalted God, and simply stated his need of God.  No repeating......Just Said It.

So I encourage you still today, to GO GET A ROOM, CLOSE THE DOOR, and pray to the Father in secret. ( JUST SAY IT!)  Have a blessed day!  LGLP