The two longest prayers
that I know of in the Bible are in 2 Chronicles 6 and John 17.
2 Chronicles 6 contains 42 verses, and it is King Solomon's
dedication of the temple in Jerusalem. It take less than 5 minutes to
pray. The result was fire came down from heaven to fill the
temple.
In John 17, it contains 26 verses, and it is Jesus's prayer
for His disciples to have unity. Ultimately, it resulted in the
disciples being baptized by the Holy Spirit and fire in Acts 2. It also takes less than 5
minutes to pray.
Why do we think that God loves to hear long prayers? I
don't think He does.
Matthew 6:7 (ESV)
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.
There's not a connection between how many words we pray and
answered prayer.
When Jesus's disciple asked Him to teach them to pray, He
gave them a one minute prayer.
Luke
11:2-4 (ESV)
2 And he said to them, “When
you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed
be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread,
4 and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread,
4 and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
That's
covers it really well.
Prayer for God's reputation, check.
Prayer
for other people to surrender to His God's, check.
Request for daily
provision, check.
Repentance from sin, check.
Forgiveness of others,
check.
Request for overcoming temptation, check.
It is an one minute heart felt prayer that does the trick.
Jesus
taught...
Matthew 7:7 (ESV)
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and
you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Get
to the point.
Mark 11:22 (ESV)
22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith
in God.
If you take a
moment to pause and remember who your talking to before you pray, it goes a
long way.
I know. I
know.
In Matthew 26:
36-46, Jesus prayed an hour. It consisted of 3 sentence
prayers. What was He doing in between? He was focused
upon God.
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