Wait, what? What is the long ending of the Lord’s Prayer?
To clear things up right now, the long ending refers to this line: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
So, what’s the issue?
Observant readers will note that in most modern English Bibles, this line is put in a footnote, not in the text. Is it an original part of the Bible? Why do we pray it?
Based on best methods and explanations of the ancient manuscripts we have, this line was not part of the original prayer. It is absent in many of the earliest and best manuscripts as well as the earliest commentaries on the Lord’s Prayer from key early church leaders. Not to mention that there are a few different versions of this long ending scattered in different places.
Because the church has prayed it this way for about as long as we can look back into time.
This ending likely made it into the Gospel manuscripts via using the prayer in church services. It brings a nice, theologically profound, closure to the prayer. As we pray for God’s kingdom to come, as we ask for God to meet our daily needs, we wrap those prayers up in words reminiscent of what the angels proclaim in the heavenlies: Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is filled with his glory.
So, we continue to pray this longer ending as part of the people of God stretching across the centuries longing for the kingdom, the power, and the glory of God to be established in all things.
Here’s a decent place to get a longer answer informed by some basic discussion of the textual tradition and the practices of the church emerging in the Reformation Era: Why Do We Say the Long Ending of the Lord’s Prayer?
How can God possibly hear and answer all those prayer requests? It’s a mind-boggling prospect that one person can interact with so many prayers in an intelligent way. How is that possible, even for God? That’s a question people have wrestled with for ages.
Keep reading below, or watch a short reflection on how AI helps us think about God answering prayers
A Bruce Almighty prayer machine
This question is the premise for an extended gag sequence in the Jim Carrey movie Bruce Almighty. Like many Jim Carrey movies, it’s funny, and really weird, and in this case much more sacrilegious than most. Bruce, Jim Carrey’s character, receives the powers of God. As he’s walking down the street, he starts hearing peoples’ hopes, dreams, and prayer requests. This happens all the time, and it is overwhelming to have to deal with. So, he sets up an email system to handle the millions and billions of requests. But that is too hard, too. To avoid having to deal with them, he just answers “yes,” to all. Chaos ensues.
The gag is premised on the simple idea that God is more powerful than a person, but still finds it overwhelming to have to carry on so many relationships and field so many requests (often contradictory) at the same time.
But we have a different way to picture it, now.
The power of AI helps us picture the power of God
Large Language Model AI, like Chat GPT, have upset the status quo in many ways.
Here’s a good way.
The existence of these AI tools that seem to be able to answer most any question in the blink of an eye—all around the world—gives us a conceptual tool to make a little bit more sense of how God deals with prayers. We made this machine. It is subject to the limits of human power and engineering, and yet it’s power is mind-boggling incredible.
How much more than this AI can the God who created the universe and created us carry on a relationship with everyone all at once and never be overwhelmed. Never be taxed. Never be worked too hard by it.
There are no less than five significant points of theological discussion that Jesus works through with the Samaritan woman at the well in their conversation.
That’s maybe a little different than you often think of this interaction. Let’s face it. If you know something about the Samaritan woman at the well, it is probably that she’s a whore. And the funny thing is, this one thing that everyone knows about her is almost certainly wrong (there are many possible explanations for her serial relationships besides that).
Rather than being suspicious of her sexuality, try this on for size: the Samaritan woman at the well is a thoughtful theologian. That’s what is actually there when we look at the text.
In fact, this is the longest theological conversation Jesus has with an individual recorded in any of the Gospels. And the discussion centers around debates between the Jews and Samaritans about worship.
Look with me at 5 touch points in these theological debates:
Samaritan identity
Samaritan ritual purity
The importance of the Patriarchs
The Messiah as the Knower of Secrets
The proper place of worship
Read on, or watch this video to find out more about how Jesus and the woman navigate these 5 key areas of theological disagreement in their discussion.
Samaritan identity
Many Jews of Jesus’ day considered the Samaritans to be religiously inferior.
Their exact history and origins is shrouded in mystery. According to their own traditions, they were the true Jews. According to most Jewish voices, they were at best potential proselytes, and at worst pagans. When the woman asks about, “Our father, Jacob,” she is making a claim that both Jews and Samaritans stem from the faithful patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Jesus never challenges that. He yields the point that they really are connected to the patriarch Jacob, thus having some claim to being part of the covenant people.
Samaritan ritual purity
This identity question is deeply relevant to a major related concern: ritual purity.
Based on what we can gather from sources of the day, many Jewish teachers would have viewed Samaritans in general, and Samaritan women in particular, as unclean. For Jesus to have this conversation at all, and especially to ask for a drink of water from her, was out of bounds.
Uncleanness was passed on by contact, especially by drinking vessels. And Jesus was asking for a drink, of all things. By his mere presence and asking for a drink, Jesus is registering a theological point about the view many Jews had of Samaritans in his day.
The Samaritan woman is picking up on something important happening here.
The importance of the patriarchs
The patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—played an elevated role in the religious practices of the Samaritans.
That’s because they didn’t use the same Bible as most Jews. They only accepted the first five books of what we call the Old Testament. Because of this elevated role that patriarchs play, her question about how Jesus stacks up against the patriarch Jacob is actually a theologically weighty one.
In essence, she is asking Jesus, “Who do you think you are, saying you are greater than the main vehicles through which God made himself known? What is your authority, you odd traveling Jewish rabbi who is asking me for a drink? where do you stack up against Jacob?”
She’s asking a theological question that is right on the money. After all, Jesus is claiming that he can give her better water than Jacob, the great patriarch. And water that gives life beyond any normal property.
That’s a big claim.
Messiah as the Knower of Secrets
The hinge point of the conversation comes when Jesus reveals knowledge about the woman’s life secrets.
This is really important because, as we just mentioned in the prior point, the Samaritans only accepted the first five books of the Bible. When they envisioned the coming Rescuer from God, they were not thinking of a Messiah in the line of David, like the Old Testament prophets point to. No. They were looking further back.
Back to Moses.
Deuteronomy 18:18 records God’s promise of sending another prophet like Moses. The Samaritans look to this person they called the Taheb. And the distinguishing feature of this Samaritan version of the Messiah was that he would be a knower of secrets who could reveal all things.
And, what do you know, Jesus shows up saying, “You’re right to say ‘I have no husband,’ because you’ve had five husbands and the one you’re with now is not your husband.”
Jesus is revealing secrets.
What’s up with the five husbands?
Jesus pointing out that she’s had five husbands is much more than an attempt to embarrass her with scandalous dirty laundry.
Indeed, since everything else in this discussion is deeply laden with symbolic meaning we’re encouraged to at least think through further why out of all the things he could have said, Jesus pointed to her marital life. Here, we are helped to think of the Jewish prophetic tradition of the Old Testament in which marriage and adultery is a key picture of religious fidelity. Pointing to her marriage history, Jesus at one and the same time shows himself as the Knower and Revealer of secret things and also as a great prophet challenging her on her faithfulness to the God she proclaims to worship.
That the woman responds with, “I see you are a prophet, so let’s talk about the right place to worship,” confirms that she is tracking with this discussion.
The proper place of worship
Any theological discussion between a Jew and a Samaritan has to discuss the proper place of worship.
The chief bone of contention between them is that the Samaritans claimed you should worship God on Mount Gerizim while the Jews claim you worship God on Mount Zion. Since Jesus has so far presented himself as greater than Jacob and one who can reveal secret knowledge, she asks him to weigh in on this thorny question. She is on a quest for knowledge at this point. One might say, she has left her quest for water far behind and is trying to find living water instead.
Jesus steps up to her question with the earth-shaking claim that he is God’s Messiah and is reshaping the landscape of worshipping God so that both Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Zion are taken up into something more complete, and more beautiful.
A bridegroom seeking a bride
The Woman at the well proves to be the perfect bride for Jesus.
No, to be clear, Jesus didn’t marry her (nor is there any reason to believe he married anyone else, either). But, metaphorically speaking, she is the perfect bride. The one ready to receive him as Messiah with worship. Worship in spirit and in truth.
This bride/bridegroom image is encouraged by the very shape of the account.
When we look at the whole Bible we see a repeated pattern of meeting by a well. Jacob’s servant meets Rachel by the well, Moses meets Zipporah there, etc. And this isn’t the first time in the Gospel of Johwn we’ve encountered the picture of Jesus as a bridegroom in search of a bride.
The wedding feat at Cana back in John 2 encourages us to see Jesus as a bridegroom come looking for a New Israel, a New People of God, that is, a new bride.
The woman at the well stands there toe-to-toe, asking all of the good questions, and coming to all the right conclusions as Jesus leads her on into a new understanding. This is exactly the new sort of bride that Jesus comes to rescue.
This woman and her conversation here is a picture for all time of how to receive Jesus.
And it’s a beautiful picture that unfolds in this deep and thoughtful theological discussion.
For a church to thrive, it must value relationships. That’s where meaningful life change happens. These three pictures show how lives are changed in relationships.
Imagine showing up to The Big House and seeing 50,000 other people dressed in maize and blue shirts, just like you. Immediate connection. The shared shirt brings you into something bigger than yourself: a relationship.
The starting point for changing lives is making connections.
Swimming is easy, once you’ve learned how. Since your body more or less floats anyway, the art of swimming is learning to relax into the support of the water rather than fight to stay on top. Gaining this comfortable familiarity requires time wading in the shallows, then venturing out into the deeps.
Lives are changed in relationship as people build comfortable familiarity. This comfortable familiarity allows people to take off their masks, to be more open and honest with each other about their strengths and weaknesses–and the odd ways those are intertwined.
A friend with a sheep farm occasionally had rams that wouldn’t stop fighting. The solution? Tie them together with a very short strap. The result? After being forced to do everything together–eat, sleep, play, walk, etc.–they became fast friends.
The deepest change comes in lives that are bound together by a lasting relational connection. Lives are deeply shaped by sticking together and sticking it out.
Want a thriving church? How are you moving from shirts to sheep?
Biblical truth is like a sign. Road signs give an important piece of information to guide you about the right way to act at the moment: STOP, turn right, get on the off ramp, etc. Signs are extremely useful.
Just like road signs, biblical truth gives important information to guide you about the right way to act in the moment. Some famous signs in the Bible: the 10 Commandments, Jesus’ Great Commandments, and the Golden Rule. Valuing biblical truth begins with following the signs.
Signs are helpful, but only when you already know where you are going. You could drive around a roundabout forever and never violate a sign…and never get anywhere. Enter the GPS. It tells you how to get from where you are to where you are going. The big picture is essential for successful travel.
Just like a GPS, biblical truth gives the big picture of where life should go. Valuing biblical truth deepens through learning the big picture to make sense of life.
A GPS is great for guiding your journey from A to B. It helps with the “how.” But it doesn’t do much with the “who,” as in, “who are you?” For that, you need a conversation partner. A skilled conversationalist draws out who you are.
Biblical truth is a skilled conversationalist that draws you toward grace, again and again. Valuing biblical truth means engaging the conversation.
There are some passages of scripture that encourage endless speculation. What are we to make of 1 Peter 4:5-6:
5 They will face a reckoning before[a] Jesus Christ[b] who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 Now it was for this very purpose[c] that the gospel was preached to those who are now dead,[d] so that though[e] they were judged in the flesh[f] by human standards[g] they may live spiritually[h] by God’s standards.[i] (NET)
Here are a few thoughts on this passage.
There are lots of details to debate in this passage. But here’s the big picture: the dead in Christ have eternal hope; the dead outside of Christ…not so much.
Kids are experts at the hermeneutics of presentation.
Wait, what? Come again. English please.
OK. Let’s say that a little differently. Kids are experts at determining how good a gift will be based on its size, shape, and the type of wrapping paper it is in. There. The hermeneutics of presentation. Rare is the Christmas morning where parents have to say, “Timmy, stop opening up all the cards and reading them and start opening up the big presents.”
We have to teach proverbs like ‘beauty is only skin deep’ and ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ because we automatically treat beauty as skin deep and judge our books by their covers. Kids are experts at sizing up how valuable the contents of a package will be based on the way it is wrapped. Part of maturing is learning how to see through the wrappings and judge with greater clarity. Said differently, part of maturing is learning to read the way that wrapping paper guides you and choosing to accept or reject the message it sends.
And that’s a wrap
The importance of wrapping doesn’t go away when Christmas gifts turn from wrapped packages to cards with cash. The importance of wrapping hangs with us our entire lives. The ‘wrapping’ gives us cues all throughout life about what is on the inside…and how we should interact with it.
Interpreting through the wrapping is evident in Ford vs. Chevy battles. Or the John Deere vs. … wait, does anybody else make tractors even worth buying? Although it is difficult to independently find any consistent, real advantage in one over the other, try convincing someone who has learned that the running yellow deer is a symbol of the unmatchable quality of whatever machine it is emblazoned on. Brands matter. And they are essentially wrapping paper helping you interpret the contents inside.
Get the point? We are always interpreting the contents by the wrapping.
The ‘Trump’ Bible
On Good Friday morning, I read in the news about Donald Trump endorsing the God Bless the USA Bible. This Bible—a KJV, for those interested (since the KJV text is in public domain no modern publisher needs convincing to undertake the potential risk in this endeavor)—not only contains the Bible, but many core texts that have become associated with patriotism:
Handwritten chorus to “God Bless The USA” by Lee Greenwood
The US Constitution
The Bill of Rights
The Declaration of Independence
The Pledge of Allegiance
And all of this wrapped inside a cover with the American flag emblazoned on the cover, proudly sporting the phrase, “GOD BLESS THE USA.”
Others can debate the potential motives for Donald Trump to ‘endorse’ a Bible. And they should.
I’ll tell you that when I read about this, I had two feelings: (1) bewilderment and (2) a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Have we really gone there?
You are free to think and feel many things about the current political climate and candidates of our country. As a pastor writing this, I invite you to think for a few brief minutes about interpreting the wrapping paper. Because everything is wrapped up to help us interpret it. Including the GOD BLESS THE USA Bible.
When you mix politics and religion…
Is there anything wrong with publishing a Bible that has several important American legal texts and a cult-favorite song attached to it? Is there anything inherently wrong with putting an American flag on the cover of a Bible? Or the words GOD BLESS THE USA featured prominently below the title HOLY BIBLE?
I invite you to consider that the answer is yes. There is something wrong. Wrapping paper matters for how we understand what is on its inside. Framing the Bible within a particular version of the trappings of American patriotism—a flag, the God bless the USA slogan, and American legal documents—sends a message about how to understand what is wrapped up on the inside. The very idea that a potential president stands in a position to endorse the Bible is itself offensive. What possibly is lacking in the Scriptures themselves, and in their long history within our culture, that Donald Trump feels he can add to with a word of endorsement?
When you mix politics and religion you get…politics. And Jesus had some cutting guidance for us regarding politics.
God and Caesar
When Jesus was asked about paying taxes, remember what he said?
18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:18-21 ESV)
A simple lesson from this: there are concerns in following God that are bigger than the concerns of the state. In terms of wrapping paper, the bigger wrapping of life should be “rendering to God the things that are God’s,” not “rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” It is instructive that the religious leaders hadn’t thought of this when they came up to Jesus with a question they viewed as a trap. The allure of political wins in the moment tends to obscure what is God’s and what is Caesar’s.
At this moment of high political conflict, I invite us all to reflect on this key point. What you do with voting and advocating in politics has many strands of influence and many motives. Make sure one of those—and a deeply important one—is asking the question, “Whose kingdom is this advancing, God’s, or man’s?” It is hard to imagine how wrapping up the Holy Bible in the trappings of American patriotism at this juncture of American history is aimed at advancing God’s kingdom.
If there is anything true about the current moment in American politics it is that it inspires passionate feelings. Whatever passionate feelings you have in this moment, I invite you to consider this. Are the interests of God’s kingdom advanced by such an overtly political wrapping paper?
Wrappings send a message: Are you listening?
The God Bless the USA Bible is not troubling because of the Bible. Nor is it troubling because of the American patriotic and governmental texts. It is concerning because it wraps the Bible up in the trappings of American politics as though the politics are the more important reality. That sends a message. All wrapping sends a message.
So, you’re excited about off the cuff prayer and scripted prayer, but how to get going? Here are a few proven helps in prayer to try out, both scripted prayers, and some model prayers to guide your praying well.
Some scripted prayer
First, as with most areas of knowledge, the internet has opened up immense archives of scripted prayers to peruse. Probably too many. I’ll point you to two that I have used with profit:
A little book called The Valley of Vision (ask me about it, if you would like to check it out)
The prayers of the Daily Office in The Book of Common Prayer (this link will take you to the prayers and readings for each day, called “The Daily Office”). Check out an app which brings it right to your phone: Daily Prayer.
These are both helpful sources of model prayers. I’m sure there are tons more out there, but I know these are good.
Scripted prayers can be helpful in expanding your understanding of what to pray for or how to pray. Let’s turn our attention now to prayer models which allow you to take advantage of the strengths of both off the cuff and scripted prayer.
On using prayer models
There’s a saying in academia that goes like this, “All models are wrong; some models are useful.” The saying refers to models like what weather forecasters use. They are tools we use to make sense of complicated data or experiences. While we like to roast weather forecasters, the reality is that we often rely a great deal on the ability of weather models to predict likely weather outcomes. I make my plans for tomorrow based on the weather forecast given today. And they do a pretty good job much of the time. We use them because they are useful. Not because they are perfect.
Model prayers have a similar function. The three model prayers I will share in brief provide a way to guide prayer time. To keep it focused. To direct our priorities in prayer to places that we can often overlook. Model prayer are a pattern to follow much like signs along a hiking trail—they keep you moving along in the right direction.
Here are three patterns to follow: the Lord’s Prayer, ACTS, and the praying hand.
the Lord’s Prayer
When Jesus’ disciples asked him how to pray, his response was a prayer. We call that prayer “The Lord’s Prayer” today. It can be found in Matthew 6:9-13 (the most famous version) or Luke 11:2-4 (the less famous but still good version). Prayer practices in Jesus’ day often involved repeating set prayers. That was very likely what the disciples were asking Jesus about: what is the set prayer your followers should pray? As such, we do well to still repeat this prayer today.
But the prayer also works as a framework. We can organize our own approach to God around the key themes which Jesus included in the model prayer he gives his followers.
Take each of the sections of the Lord’s Prayer to guide areas of life that require focus in prayer:
Dear Father, you are _____
Your kingdom come, your will be done in _____
Give us _____
Forgive us for _____
and help us to forgive _____
Protect us from temptation and evil in _____
It doesn’t cover everything worth praying for, but it guides our thoughts and feelings through an organized set of priorities worthy of prayer.
ACTS
Another well-known pattern prayer, the acronym ACTS, leads through key parts of our spiritual life before God:
Adoration (spend time worshiping God) – Wow God, you are…
Confession (repent of sins and ask for forgiveness) – I’m sorry for…
Thanksgiving (thank God for what He has done) – Thank you for…
Supplication (asking for help) – Please help…
This pattern is especially helpful in reminding you to spend time adoring/praising God and confessing sins, not just saying, “Here is what I want to happen.”
the praying hand
The praying hand, our final model, is one that I only learned about recently. But I have come to find in it a dear friend. Use your fingers to remind you of key areas that deserve prayer:
Thumb: pray for those who are closest to you (the thumb is closest)
Index/pointer: pray for those who teach and heal you (this finger is used for teaching)
Middle: Pray for those who lead (this finger is tallest)
Ring: Pray for those who are weak/sick (this finger is the weakest)
Pinky: Pray for your own needs
A particular strength of this pattern is that it combats self-only focused prayers. We work through the needs of others in prayer before getting to our own. That is a beautiful practice of loving neighbor as self.
Follow the pattern prayers
Models work because they are simple, memorable, and effective. These three model prayers (there are many more) fit the bill. Use them well.
Jesus was compassionate. That is not exactly news to most people. But to the fact that Jesus was compassionate, we must add another piece of information: Jesus’ compassion teaches about the nature of God. In Jesus’ acts of compassion, we see that God reaches outside the boundaries to enable outsiders to come in. Consider briefly with me Jesus healing a leper.
impure made pure
In Mark 1:40-45, we read about Jesus cleansing a man with a skin disease. According to the laws in Leviticus 13, Jesus probably shouldn’t have been hanging around with a leper. But he did. In fact, he did even more than just hang around with him:
40 Now a leper came to him and fell to his knees, asking for help. “If you are willing, you can make me clean,” he said. 41 Moved with indignation, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean!” 42 The leprosy left him at once, and he was clean. (NET)
Jesus touched him. According to all of the social conventions and the Torah on which they were based—some more rightly than others—Jesus shouldn’t do that. To be a ‘leper’ meant the man had a skin disease which rendered him ritually impure.
Note: the word leprosy in the Bible is not referring to the skin disease which we today call leprosy, or, more technically, Hansen’s disease. It refers to a variety of skin conditions of uncertain nature that resulted in rashes, spots, etc.
Ritual impurity worked a lot like COVID lockdown guidelines—touch someone who was sick and you had to go into quarantine, too, until you could prove you weren’t sick. Avoiding ritual impurity was an important consideration in Jesus’ day and place. Jesus sets this all aside and touches the man.
Why does Jesus do this?
following the model of God
Jesus follows the model of how God deals with a rebellious people who are ritually (and morally) cut off from him. We see this model many places in the Old Testament, but an especially poignant instance occurs at Mt. Sinai.
While Moses is up on the mountain receiving the Law, the people decide to through their own impromptu religious orgy. In this act, they violate the provisions of the covenant God is making with them. Thus, if God were driven by legal technicalities, he would walk away from them and never come back. Instead, the sin becomes the backdrop for God’s self-revealing action.
In Exodus 34:27 we read:
27 The Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” (NET)
This verse sounds interesting, but once we remember it is after the golden calf rebellion, it takes a profound meaning. Despite God’s people breaking their nascent covenant with God, he reconnects with them. In his compassion, he reaches beyond the terms of the covenant they broke and takes hold of them again.
We learn about God by what he does, and what he does is reach out with compassion beyond the boundaries.
the cleaning touch
The model of God’s action in Exodus is not lost on Jesus. God made the people fit for relationship even though they had made themselves unfit. He crossed through a boundary and brought them back.
In a small, symbolic way, Jesus does this same thing. He steps across the boundary of clean/unclean and brings the leprous man back. His command, “Be clean!” effects the opposite of what is expected. In the purity system, when a clean person touched an unclean person, it was always the uncleanness that was contagious. Jesus acts with the finger of God to bring restorative cleanness to the man with a touch.
We learn about God by what he does. One compassionate touch from Jesus has so much to teach us about a God who crosses boarders and boundaries to bring people home.
Few questions have the power to make a church gathering awkward more quickly than asking people about their prayer life. Yet it is a deeply important part of life for the follower of Jesus. A new year is a fair time to ask an ever-important question: how, then, shall we pray? There are two approaches to prayer that you should utilize which can yield benefits in your prayer life (and life in general): off the cuff prayer and scripted prayer.
“Off the cuff” prayer
Off the cuff prayer, or more fancily, extemporaneous prayer, is what we call a prayer that is made up on the spot. In my experience, people in the Baptist and Baptist-like circles of Christian practice consider extemporaneous prayer to be the gold standard. Off the cuff prayer has a unique power to unleash passion, but without proper attention it also can easily end in dull routine and limited prayers.
raw and passionate prayer
Probably the best feature of extemporaneous prayer is that it connects to the actual thoughts and feelings of the moment. Since it is much like talking, it allows us to freely bring our thoughts and concerns to the throne of God, with all the angst and joy we feel right now. This conversational aspect of off the cuff prayer often results in it feeling more real, more authentic, and more connected to our lives. All good things.
the problem of routine and blinders
But for all its strengths, extemporaneous prayer has some weakness to guard against. Two important weaknesses are dull routine and prayer-blinders.
dull routine
A prayer routine is when you end up saying the same old things about the same old things. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Nothing saps the savor from prayer quite like a dull routine. Off the cuff prayer can easily degrade from connected conversation to stale patterns and cliches. Let’s face it, the depth and breadth of extemporaneous prayer is largely limited by your creativity. While we have periodic flashes of creative brilliance, most of life is spent in the humdrum murk of the mundane. Stagnant prayers tend to result in a stagnant prayer life.
Alongside the danger of the dreaded dull routine, off-the-cuff prayer can also be crippled by prayer-blinders.
prayer-blinders
Envision the Mackinaw Island horses. They all wear the same, stylish headgear: blinders. Blinders serve to narrow the horses’ immense range of vision, so they can only focus on what is ahead. For horses pulling wagons in busy streets, blinders are useful. But for the follower of God in prayer, blinders hinder spiritual depth and breadth.
Prayer driven only by the needs and thoughts of the moment tends toward spiritual narrowness. It is relatively easy to pray for my needs; after all, I am always acutely aware of them. But what about the needs of others in your church? The one struggling with the recent death of a loved one or the couple at a loss in parenting their child, and so many others. They are on the periphery of your life. Without some sort of guidance you probably won’t get around to praying for them. Not to mention even further removed issues like church unity, gospel effectiveness, the spiritual health of denominational leaders, the effectiveness of community leaders, or even the perseverance of the church around the world.
All these topics, and more, deserve prayer. But when our prayers are blown about by our daily concerns, they tend to never arrive anywhere but where the wind blows.
Scripted or rote prayer.
Opposite to off the cuff prayer, the other main model involves praying from a script. Scripted prayer, aka rote prayer, is praying via reading or reciting from memory. Think reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Scripted prayers can be either self-written or composed by others. Periodically using prayers written by others can sharpen the way you pray and broaden your awareness of what is worth praying for. This makes scripted prayers useful for learning how to pray. Scripted prayer, though, also suffers from the pitfall of a different sort of dull routine.
deep and wide prayer
Scripted prayer is like marinated meat. The longer it soaks, the more flavorful the result. Off the cuff prayer is limited by the creative spark of the moment. Scripted prayer soaks in the flavors of reflective thought. As such, scripted prayers—at least those done well—tend to have greater breadth and depth of concern, rigor, and beauty. A prayer that has time to soak gains the strength to move beyond immediate, personal needs and embrace God’s words and intentions to us.
lasting prayer
Since it is written down or memorized, scripted prayer gains a further strength: repeatability. While many from non-liturgical church backgrounds fear repetition, the fact is that those things which we repeat shape us. Skill and expertise emerge through practice over time. Scripted prayers can shape our lives and shape our prayer sensibilities in powerful ways over the years.
the pitfall of dull routine
Dull routine is the chief drawback of scripted prayers. While repetition shapes our lives, it can also become background noise. How often do we go through the routine of taking a step without giving any conscious attention to what we are doing? A prayer life that is reduced to sub-conscious prayer is a tragedy.
Aside from monotonous repetition, scripted prayers can also become stale when they fail to excite the emotions. Prayers that feel foreign in your mouth don’t taste good, thus they are never savored. Remember your favorite B movie. One quality of B movies, aside from poorly written scripts and deeply underfunded effects, is that the actors sound like they are saying lines. The words don’t quite fit in their mouths. Praying foreign prayers is not helpful.
The best of both worlds
How then shall we pray? I hope it is clear that both off the cuff and scripted prayers are valuable. Scripted prayer tends to be strong in all the ways that off the cuff prayer is weak, and weak in all the ways that off the cuff prayer is strong. As such, there is great wisdom in incorporating both into a life of prayer. The two approaches can feed into one another in lovely ways as you build a more robust prayer life.
In the next post, I’ll give a few patterns that are worthwhile guides for praying.
