5. “Let’s Have a Word of Prayer”
5
“Let’s Have a Word of Prayer”
Truth be told, it would probably be better just to say, “Let’s pray.” Or perhaps, “Let’s invest some time in prayer.”
After all, what is “a word of prayer”? According to the dictionary, to have “a word” with somebody means to engage in a very short conversation. But I’ve heard people say, “Let’s have a word of prayer,” and then proceed to pray for ten minutes.
Alas, these evangelical clichés get stuck in our brains, and we use them routinely without realizing what we’re doing! It’s all part of the fixtures of a traditional prayer meeting, but when our prayer meetings become traditional, we’d better start praying for revival. Every time we say, “Let’s have a word of prayer,” we may be giving evidence that we’re not really thinking about the seriousness of prayer. In fact, sometimes our words just run together:
“Let’shaveawordofprayerOurFatherinheaven …”
… and off we go.
But we know that rushing into God’s presence like this is not the way God wants us to pray. To be sure, in emergency situations—as when Peter started sinking in the Sea of Galilee—we don’t have time to prepare ourselves to pray and can only cry out, “Lord, save me!” But unless you’re a race car driver or a wild animal trainer, those dangerous occasions are probably not that frequent in your life.
When I was serving with Youth for Christ (YFC) International, I quickly learned the importance of prayer, because YFC operated from one miracle to another. We met in regular prayer meetings, as well as in spontaneous ones as needs arose, and at these gatherings Bob Cook and Ted Engstrom used to remind us to “get rid of our routine prayers” so that we could get down to business and really pray.
I discovered that “routine praying” was a problem in my own prayer life. How easy it is to put the “prayer CD” in the slot, push the start button, and recite to the Lord the same requests in the same order day after day. This practice might be included in what Jesus called “babbling like pagans” (Matt. 6:7; “vain repetitions” in the KJV), a phrase that my Greek lexicon translates as “speaking without thinking.” This can be a problem, especially for people who have a list of items that they pray about every day.
Keeping prayer fresh and vibrant is the result of worshipping the Lord, feeding joyfully on the Word, yielding to the Spirit, focusing on what we think and say, and not allowing the “weariness of the flesh” to take over. If you’re in a group prayer meeting, pay close attention to what the other people pray about. If you’re the leader, be sure the atmosphere stays fresh (remember Eutychus? See Acts 20:7–12), and encourage the participants occasionally to stand, sing, and gather in small groups. Routine can be fatal, and sameness can lead to tameness. It’s helpful to write the prayer requests on a blackboard (or whiteboard) that everybody can see, and printed prayer lists are useful in the meeting and can be taken home.
One word of caution: as we seek to eliminate the clichés from our praying, let’s be careful not to become “cute.” Prayer is not the vehicle for displaying our vocabulary, our cleverness, or the verses we’ve memorized. “Do not be quick with your mouth,” warned Solomon. “Do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God” (Eccles. 5:2). If we’re faithful in our private prayers and honest with God, we’ll have no problem carrying that sincerity into a public prayer meeting. Paul exhorted us to “pray continually” (1 Thess. 5:17), not just to “have a word of prayer.”