Matthew 14:30-31 But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" 31 Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"
We are considering, as we conclude this series on Reasons to Pray, what our prayers do not have to be in order for God to hear and answer them. Last week, we saw that they do not have to be long. This week, and somewhat related, we are meditating on the fact that our prayers do not have to be eloquent.
Consider the prayer of Peter in our text. He had time to be neither long nor eloquent but the Lord graciously granted his request. Think of Nehemiah in front of the king, who shot a quick and unspoken prayer to God before making a request that put him at considerable personal risk. Remember the thief on the cross, whose prayer was simply to be remembered when Jesus came into His kingdom. In none of these cases did the men adopt a stance as an orator and speak with complicated words and phrases. Their prayers were simple and direct and God heard them and answered.
This is a lesson that many in the church need to learn today. When we come to God, we almost adopt a different language to address him. We have heard phrases used by others and adopted them as our own. If we were to write down, word for word, the prayers we utter to God we may see that they are full of quaint phrases, old English usages and clichés. We should note that there is nothing necessarily wrong with this provided we are praying in sincerity. What we must avoid, though, is a situation in which we are using words and phrases to gain the approval and the admiration of others who are listening. That is a trap that the Pharisees fell into and Jesus reprimanded them for it.
One test we might perform is to compare the language we use in our prayers when we are on our own with that we use when we are praying aloud in a group. Are our prayers identical or different? If different, why?
For some people, the fear of not being able to achieve a certain level of eloquence in prayer can be a real hindrance to their participation in a prayer meeting. This meditation is designed to be an encouragement to all in this condition. God sees our hearts, and will answer rightly motivated prayers no matter how faltering or awkward may be their expression. Parents - you have never denied something good and necessary to your two-year old because they made grammatical or other errors in phrasing their request! And it is the approval of our heavenly Father and His assistance we are seeking, not that of men.
So let's shake off the fear of man and the hindrance that can be to our prayers on the one hand, and let's also avoid the temptation to pray with an assumed eloquence to impress our brothers and sisters on the other hand. Let's rather be amazed that God will receive us for the sake of Christ and will bless us because we are His children, and will give good gifts to us for that reason alone.
