“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”
— Matthew 6:7
This can describe prayer that is mechanical; you just say the words, but they have no depth from your being. They are like saying the doxology or Hail Mary prayers.
It can also describe praying repetitiously an idea or thought so as to be considered by others as deep and profound instead of actually drawing closer to God.
The “babbling” prayer can speak about the so called prayer of a person who just wants to appear holy.
It can be from a person who prays a sermon or must pray every time he/she is in a group because he/she wants people to notice.
Notice, three of these possibilities arise from vanity and pride. The prayers of these people are manufactured for performance—to be seen and noticed. The first, though different, is also to be noticed, but by God, not people. Rote, memorized, going-through-the-motions praying just to get the “chore” done is the person’s attempt at gaining God’s favor by deception, though God sees through deception. He knows the person’s heart is not in it.
Each of these four prayers is to gain undue attention and favor, to be seen as a child of God in good standing. Notice, what happens begins in the heart—a desire to be seen as more godly than other people—then moves to the mind—reason—to deceive people and God. It then becomes action with the actual praying. Jesus taught what contaminates the person is not what he/she puts in the mouth, but what comes from it resulting in thought, words, and action unacceptable by God. Since this is so, why even pray if God already knows your heart’s deceptive intention? People often recognize the deception, too.
Instead, let your mind, heart, and spirit seek God and desire to truly speak to Him. Pray because you desire to be with God and have a deeper relationship with Him. For God already knows your needs. He knows your heart. Be with God. Seek Him above anything you can say, you want to be, you what to have, and you want to be considered. Seek first God AND His righteousness. Don’t seek to manufacture your own righteousness.
Father, it is so very hard to decide to be still and quiet and to seek only You. We have a list of requests for ourselves and other people. We want to get through that list and get to the next part of our day. We’ve made prayer a chore—a task on our to-do list. Help us to understand what prayer is. Help us to desire to be with You, to desire time with You, to be closer to you, and, thereby, to be made more into the image of Christ by you because of this.
We are taught to make lists, to make prayer lists, and how to pray. Somehow, it’s rarely taught how to be with You. Oh, reading the Bible is easy, but that can become another of those to-dos to be done, then checked off.
Lord, it’s the “to be” part of praying that’s hardest. Teach us how to just BE with you. Teach our hearts how to teach our minds that it’s okay just to sit and be with you in silence, in listening, in thinking on Your words, and in seeking Your heart. Create a stillness in us that teaches our minds to allow our hearts and spirits to take time to BE with You. Just BE with You. Calm our breathing. Calm our minds. Calm our heartbeat and lead us to relax and BE with You. Lord, so many people need prayer; they need You to intervene. How can I still my mind when they need to be prayed for? Ah, Your Spirit knows what needs to be prayed for and will speak with groaning to deep for words.
May the words, which my mind requires me to pray, come through Your Spirit’s groaning so that I don’t focus on words, but on You. Compel me for what and how to speak to You as I am still and quiet before You. Be my next breath. Be my next heartbeat. Be my every thought. All so I focus solely on You, Lord. I am Yours, O Lord. I want to hear Your voice. Draw me to You to just BE with You.
