“God/Father/Jesus” are not punctuation marks, so they shouldn’t end every sentence we utter in prayer. Prayer is our communication to God. We wouldn’t communicate with any other person by ending every sentence we say to them with their name (“What did you do today John? Are you going to the game John? It was nice to see your kids John. They played so well last week John. The hot dogs at the park were delicious too John.”)
When we talk to God that way, we are not using his name to address Him, but as “filler” material. I doubt God is annoyed by this in the same way that I would be annoyed if someone talked to me that way, but I think we can do better nonetheless.
Thinking to Believe 
February 20, 2014 at 12:03 pm
Totally relate! In some ways it can seem a little disrespectful to use the name of God as filler material. But on the other hand, maybe the name of God is a sort of ‘safe base’ that people feel comfortable about coming back to…?
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February 20, 2014 at 12:31 pm
Jason:
Prayer is to meditate; giving thought to important issues that need resolution.
This is an interesting topic. I often thought why do people even “pray” out loud? That is not the kind of prayer that Jesus taught about.
Jesus said: “When you pray don’t do like the hypocrites who think they will be heard for their much speaking, For they love to pray standing in the Church and on the corners of streets, that they may seen of men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward”
“But you, when you pray, go into your room,(the room is your own mind) and when you have shut your door,(shut out the world so you are in your stillness of contemplation, meditate) to your Father who is in the secret place;(the Kingdom seat that is within youv is his secret abode) and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.)
“And when you pray, (in the presence of others for edification, solace and comfort, for example) do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.”
“So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven,(the Kingdom where the Father lives within you) Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom(within us) come. Your will be done On earth as it is (in the Kingdom spirit world, within) in heaven.”
And that is the duty of those who claim to understand the message of Jesus, to manifest that kingdom within out in the open(not under a tub) where it can be seen, enjoyed, and beneficial to others.
Here is an illustration that you cannot possibly fail to understand what the “Lord’s Prayer” means; an analogy of how a simple idea was conceived in “heaven”(in the mind, where you-know-who resides) and brought to earth (where that “Will” was done on earth as it was in heaven) as prototypes. I call it the story of a “tidbit of tactical theology”:
Earle Dickson was employed as a cotton buyer for the Johnson & Johnson in 1921. His wife Josephine Dickson was always cutting her fingers in the kitchen while preparing food.
At that time a bandage consisted of separate gauze and adhesive tape that you would cut to size and apply yourself. Earle Dickson noticed that gauze and adhesive tape she used would soon fall off her active fingers. He decided to invent something that would stay in place and protect small wounds better.
Earle Dickson took a piece of gauze and attached it to the center of a piece of tape, and then covered the product with crinoline to keep it sterile. His boss, James Johnson, saw Earle Dickson’s invention and decided to manufacture it to the public and make Earle Dickson vice-president of Johnson & Johnson. The Band-Aid was born on earth!
Sales of Band-Aids were slow until Johnson & Johnson decided to give Boy Scout troops free Band-Aids as a publicity stunt. By 1924, Band-Aids were machine made, sold sterilized in 1939, and made with vinyl tape in 1958. Billions and billions of people have been helped around the world by the simple Band-Aid, like the sun that shines on everybody, like the rain that falls and nourishes everyone, the religious and the non religious alike have been the recipients of this little health helper; a beautiful tidbit of tactical theology, the simple, unpretentious, unobtrusive Band-Aid.
history source: http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventions/a/bandaid.htm
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February 20, 2014 at 5:18 pm
SonofMan,
That is not the Christian view of the nature or purpose of prayer.
And I don’t think Jesus’ meant that we need to pray alone, or pray silently. He did not pray silently, and He instructed His disciples to pray together and speak their prayers. The disciples did pray together, and they prayed out loud. See https://theosophical.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/did-jesus-teach-that-corporate-vocalized-prayer-is-wrong/.
Jason
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February 21, 2014 at 9:48 am
Jason:
I thought I gave you the scriptures of Jesus speaking about prayer, sorry that I did not include them but I respectfully submit that Jesus DID MEAN exactly what he said when he said to pray in silence of your own heart because as I mentioned, prayer is merely meditating on those things of importance already on the tip of your brain before they reach the tip of your tongue tongue without neglecting the other times of prayer when it is appropriate to do so.
Matthew 6:6
But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Matthew 6:7
And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
I also referenced the following scriptures without citing them, about praying for the edification, solace and comfort of others which is not denying that sometimes one prays in the midst of others and about that he also said:
Mark 11:25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
Luke 11:2
So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
He further said but I did not quote any scriptures here either:
Luke 22:32
“pray that your faith will not fail(remain steadfast as men who by practice have their senses trained in the discernment of good and evil and choose the good.”
and Luke 22:40 “pray that you enter not into temptation” not enter into sin but not to enter into temptation from which it is very difficult to argue on behalf of the spirit against the desires of the flesh which is where temptation strives to strike: the physical.
Preachers who pray to an audience of 10,000 people in a mega church don’t impress me and I suggest do not impress the Father within most of the individuals in congregation either as they regurgitate their Pharisaical rhetorical rote; albeit, many of the parishioners have already been preconditioned by the same preachers to follow the authority of clergy as truth instead of discerning truth as the authority for themselves.
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February 21, 2014 at 10:08 am
SonofMan,
You can submit that, but it’s clearly not what Jesus meant given his own example, and the example of those he taught. And Jesus said nothing about “silence” or praying in one’s “heart.” Those are your words, not his.
Jason
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February 21, 2014 at 11:12 pm
Why will you not accept the logic of Jesus words as noted in the bible. Your idea of the statement: “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret……”
What in the world do you think he is talking about? “….Go into your room and shut the door……”; literally or metaphorically? It doesn’t even matter! Huh?
Are you saying that Jesus “meant what he said, but didn’t say what he meant? Or do you mean to say that Jesus “said what he meant but didn’t mean what he said”? Otherwise his words are brilliantly obvious.
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February 22, 2014 at 12:05 am
I’m saying that given what Jesus said and did elsewhere, and given what those he taught for 3+ years said and did, it’s clear that He is speaking metaphorically. He’s not demanding that people go into actual closets to pray, or that they cannot pray out loud, anymore than Jesus meant people should actually cut off their hands to stop sinning or not to let your left hand know when your right hand is giving. He is telling people that when they pray, their prayers should be directed at God rather than men. The problem with the Pharisees was not that they were praying out loud, but that they were praying only to be seen and heard by men. They weren’t talking to God, but men.
Jason
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February 22, 2014 at 10:19 am
Jason:
Glad to read you are seeing a different light from your # 3 post.
“They weren’t talking to God, but men.” That’s what I meant and that’s what Jesus meant (metaphorically) with the exception that you substituted the term “God” rather than what Jesus said, the “Father” and they are not the same thing.
The “Father” of Jesus “within you” and the God(s) of men without are not the same thing.
The external supernatural God invented by man is not the “Father within” we are born with, that Jesus spoke of.
It’s an apple and an orangutan and they are not interchangeable.
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February 24, 2014 at 5:31 am
Jason,
Why do you say that prayer is “communicating with” with God? This implies two way communication rather than a one way communication. While I have been brought up in pentecostal/evangelical churches that expect 2-way communication, I personally have never had the Lord speak to me directly. Moreover, Greg Koukl has mentioned that there is no basis in the new testament of the idea that we should wait and listen to the Spirit. (At least, that was the impression I got)
I would not say that God does not, nor cannot, but would say that this is not the standard method.
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February 24, 2014 at 9:13 am
Scott,
I am completely on-board with Koukl’s assessment. That’s why I carefully worded my statement as “Prayer is our communication TO God.” I don’t have a problem using “communication” to describe this because I don’t see how “communication” implies bi-lateral conversation. Communication simply means the imparting of thoughts or information. Think of marketing. I think most people would agree that advertising is a communication, and yet, it is a one-way communication.
Jason
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February 24, 2014 at 6:44 pm
It takes two components for a communication. A communication always implies and always infers a sender and a receiver. A communication such as an advertisement is a two way communication otherwise the advertiser would find such a gesture useless if he thought it was not going to reach someone on the other side, for goodness sakes. It doesn’t require a conversation but when the receiver buys the product advertised; well show me the money, that’s a two way communication.
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February 24, 2014 at 7:01 pm
By that reasoning SonofMan, then prayer is also communication since everything I pray “reach[es] someone on the other side,” and God “buys” my prayer when it is answered. So either way, the point holds.
Jason
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February 24, 2014 at 7:09 pm
Jason:
Your communication does reach someone, the Father who lives within you; and that’s as close as you’ll ever get to God; and that’s as personal as it will ever get; there is nothing personal outside of your own self, other than the life environment we survive from and the Father who lives in everyone else.
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February 27, 2014 at 10:06 am
Joh 8:42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.
Joh 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Joh 8:45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
Naz
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