Matthew 6:5-15 Prayer
5“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9“This, then, is how you should pray:
” ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’ 14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:5-15)
I have a hard time praying out loud with others. The evening that members from our church (Steve and Randy) came to our house to talk about becoming members, we talked about how I have to accept Jesus Christ as my LORD and savior. I had done that in my own mind, but I had not professed it to others. I was asked to do it, and I froze. The words were on my tongue, but would not come out. Steve saw that I was stuck and said, “just repeat this after me…”. He started talking and I was repeating. However, half way through, he stopped and said, “I’m sorry Aaron, let me just pray for you.”
I was planing on joining this church just on a statement of faith. I was raised Catholic, and from what I understood I had been baptized. I never gave thought to being baptized again. However, the next day I was overtaken by the Holly Spirit and decided that I wanted/needed to be baptized.
This passage has given me much comfort when I am unable to pray out loud with others. It is not the words that matter, it is desire.
“LORD, thank you for bringing Steve and Randy to me, for with their guidance, I was able to hear you. Amen”
June 6th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Hi,
I got your email and as you can tell my blog design still has a couple of bugs. I should have it finished sometime next week. Would be sooner, but am going away for the weekend.
Anyhow I wanted to say that I also feel awkward and uncomfortable when praying aloud in front of others.
June 7th, 2007 at 7:44 am
I hope to get over that uncomfortable feeling, but we will see.
Good luck on the site.