Heart or Habit?

Do you pray differently when you're by yourself than when you are around others?? Why? (seriously stop and think - why?)

Do we pray to "impress" man? Maybe, maybe not. Why do we care so much about what other people hear us pray? Why do we begin praying the same way over and over again?

• "Dear God..." - (Are we writing Him a letter?)

• "God, we come to you in prayer..." - (how else??)

• "God, thank you for this day..." (Are we genuinely grateful or is it more of a habit?)

Or how about when we say God's name after every other sentence? Do we think He forgets who He is? Or maybe we're afraid God has ADD that we have to remind him every 3.7 seconds that we're talking to Him?

Or maybe it's that we pray that way out of... HABIT???

Do you pray more out of HABIT or from your heart? God doesn't want to hear us pray a certain way because there are certain people in the room. I think we ought to pray more like Arnold Jackson - "God, it's me again, you know, the lil' black kid on Park Avenue." (His prayers, though they were scripted, seemed to come from the heart.) He wants us to talk to him from our HEART, not from habit. Here are a few reminders to move from praying out of habit, to praying out of the heart...

H onor Him, don't preach
Tell God how awesome He is - Honor Him, but don't preach to those in the room. Seriously, are you praying to God or to others? Ive been around a lot of people who feel the need to preach a sermon in their prayer. This happens especially before a song, or after a message has "already been preached" - (I've been there, just saying)

E mpty the room
Wow, how we hold back from asking God what we really want to say just because there are other people in the room. Sometimes I wonder if we pray certain things just because people are in the room (If we prayed what our heart really felt, they might think were ungodly)

A ddress Him differently
How do you address God? Most of us have a certain way we begin our prayer... the same way every time. Why not change it up? Why not just call him God instead of "Our most gracious heavenly father holy God"? I'm not saying it's wrong to address God by way of His attributes. I'm just asking WHY we address him the same way "every time". (Is it really from the heart or from a habit?)

R epetition isn't needed
Really, you don't have to remind God that you are talking to Him. He doesn't have ADD. He is listening to you and hasn't mistakenly thought you were talking to someone else. Where is the verse in the bible where God says, "Oh, I'm sorry I wasn't listening. Where you talking to me??" When we say His name 14 times in a 2 minute prayer... is it out of habit, or from the heart?

T alk to Him from a desire, not a duty
God doesn't want to hear us talk to him because we "have to". He wants to hear from us because we have a desire to. When you're in a group praying, if you don't feel like praying out loud - don't. Don't fake it and put on the sandals of the Pharisees. You probably just need to get alone with God & tell Him how you feel. What if you don't "feel like" praying even when you're alone?? Ask God, He knows. In doing that, guess what - it's prayer. (If you tell Him how you feel - even if it gets ugly - chances are, it will come from the heart)

Observe the way you pray this week. Is it more from the heart or more from habit?