wrestling all night in prayer

[Papa Bear]

(05-17-2012 09:13 PM)redhot Wrote:  

(05-14-2012 10:40 AM)Scorpio Wrote:  And not to mention Brother Jed whose prayers consist of 3 words and then "Lord we just", 3 words and "Lord we just". Rinse and repeat 25 times. No, that's not vain repetition at all.

After hearing someone mention this, I realized that I sometimes did it. I am very conscious of it now, especially since in my school I often have to pray aloud. I also find myself counting the number of times the word "Lord" or "Father God" is used by some of the men in our church (never women, since of course they are never allowed to pray publicly)

I don't think Jesus was telling us not to repeat a prayer, because he follows this with a prayer he tells us to use, and I don't think he condemns verbal tics either. (But repeating written prayers will reduce these.) I think the point is that we should not pray long prayers to impress others (verses 5-6) or impress God (verses 7-8).

Matthew 6:5-9
English Standard Version (ESV)
The Lord's Prayer

5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven…"

[pastor's wife]

(05-18-2012 08:51 AM)Papa Bear Wrote:  When He asks, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" "Because the Catholics do that" will not be an acceptable answer.

SOOOOOO true!

This applies to other things too:

"Why did you condemn other believers who were worshipping me as described in Ps. 150?" "Because we didn't want to be like the charismatics"

"Why didn't you feed the hungry?" "Because we didn't want to be like those liberal denominations"

They're like the third servant in the parable of the talents who is so scared of his master because he thinks he's a hard man that he hides his talent -- he doesn't do anything -- lest he do something wrong and enrage his master. I no longer want to huddle away in fear just in case I displease God by being "too" Catholic, liberal, or Pentecostal. Instead I want to obey His commands and if some of those commands are being followed by another group with whom I disagree doctrinally, I'm not going to let that stop me from obeying Christ.

[JimE]

I think that some confuse this with staying-awake-all-night-due-to-stress-in-my-life and actually praying.
Much less praying and much more trying-to-figure-out-what-do.
I've had sleepless nights. There has been some prayer, but mostly a lot of thinking.
It is simular to the sermon-in-a-prayer that some MOG do when they are not scheduled to preach but are allowed to pray.