Comments on: Using God’s name as a comma

By: Richard L. Lindberg

Richard L. Lindberg — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:13:40 +0000

Your comments are right on. Many free prayers sound like the prayer hasn’t thought about what he/she wants to say. Calvin had a good idea with written, thought out prayers.

By: Ian MacRae

Ian MacRae — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:57:35 +0000

Very good post, worthwhile advice for us all.I remember a good number of years ago now an incident involving two wonderful old Christians who David Murray knew very well. I was at a prayer meeting where quite a few young Christians were asked to pray and, almost to a man, used ‘Lord’ as a filler. This bothered an old Christian who was present and led to this good-natured comment from his friend the next day: “well John, I hear you were in the House of Lords last night!”

By: Paul C

Paul C — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:08:06 +0000

Very good – especially point #3. The issue with public prayer, I find, is actually praying. Sometimes you can be so conscious of those around that you are actually speaking for them to hear, rather than God. I guess that’s why filler-words are so common when publicly praying or speaking.

By: Scott@fb

Scott@fb — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:51:17 +0000

Good stuff…!The funny thing I notice is no one who starts praying in King James English can be consistent. I don’t really know anyone who can start praying to God as “thou” and keep it up during the entire prayer – they’ll always revert to “you” about halfway through. There probably are people who are consistent, but I can’t think of any.Also, watch the use of “just” which seems to be another comma verbal-tic word – “Father, we just pray that…”I agree with speaking slowly. In fact, that’s a whole blog post by itself about pace. I have quit listening to several pastorswhotalksofastyoucan’tfollowanythingtheysay… If I listen to every word intently, by the end of 20 minutes I realize I haven’t retained anything they say. If I listen to a sentence and try to retain it, I miss the next five sentences.