The Seduction of Prayer: Prayer Without the Mind By J Mark Copeland

The seduction of prayer results in prayer without the mind. The ultimate evidence of the seduction of prayer is apparent when prayer becomes thoughtless and mechanical.

If we don’t engage our minds in our praying, then we certainly won’t engage our wills or our hearts in prayer. Jesus was concerned about mindless praying. He said, “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:7, 8).

Other translations of these verses indicate that Jesus warned against the use of “vain repetitions” (KJV), “empty phrases” (RSV) or “meaningless words” (TEV).

 

It is not so much long prayers or repetitious prayers that Jesus warned against. Jesus Himself spent long periods of time in prayer (see Mark 1:35) and once prayed the same prayer three times in succession. (See Matthew 26:36-44.) Rather, Jesus is concerned about the danger of thinking that prayer is effective because of its repetition and does not, therefore, need to engage the mind at all.

Jesus attributed mindless praying to pagans or Gentiles. (See Matthew 6:6.) In Jesus’ day, the non-Jewish world often treated prayer as a form of magical incantation in which the sheer number of repetitions of certain words or phrases produced the desired effect. Since the words themselves were believed to contain such power, it was not deemed important to think about the prayer. It was only necessary to say the prayer. This was mindless praying in its ultimate form.

How might we fall into the trap of mindless praying? We can fall into this trap by saying our prayers rather than praying our prayers. Dr. Robert Cook says, “All of us have one routine prayer in our system; and once we get rid of it, then we can really start to pray!”

 

Routine prayer can easily become mindless praying. One humorous example makes the point. On one memorable occasion, my mother said the blessing at dinner time. A minute or so later, she asked, “Who would like to say the blessing?” It took my dad, my brother and me to convince her that she had already had. Because grace is a routine prayer, it is easy to say it thoughtlessly. We must be careful not to pray without the mind.

 

The seduction of prayer may manifest itself in prayer without the heart, prayer without the will, or even prayer without the mind. Jesus warned us to guard against each of these pitfalls of prayer. Having told us how not to pray, Jesus then instructed us how to pray.

 

-After this manner, pray

The Seduction of Prayer: Prayer Without the Mind By J Mark Copeland

The Seduction of Prayer: Prayer Without the Heart By J Mark Copeland

First of all, the seduction of prayer results in prayer without the heart. Prayer should always involve a bowing of the heart before God. It should always entail humbling oneself before God, casting oneself upon His mercy and receiving His grace for the meeting of one’s needs and the granting of one’s petitions. Prayer without such genuine humility is prayer without the heart.

 

Jesus warned against prayer without the heart. He said,

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full” (Matthew 6:5).

Such people as Jesus described here were not bowing their hearts before God in humility. Rather, they were exalting themselves before men in pride.

The hypocrisy of prayer without humility was easy to spot among the Jews of Jesus’ day. Orthodox Judaism specified three times per day that were to be devoted to prayer. Every believing Jew was to pray at 9:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.

Any Jewish person who wanted to flaunt his spirituality might schedule himself to be in a public place surrounded by many people at the hour of prayer. He would then stand still, raise his arms into the air, turn the palms of his hands heavenward, bow his head and begin to pray with a display of great devotion.

Although onlookers might view this public prayer as a sign of deep devotion, Jesus called it hypocrisy. Why? Because it was prayer without humility. To God, it was prayer without the heart.

We must guard against prayer without the heart. It is easy to become self-conscious about prayer. I’ve heard people say that they do not want to be called on to pray in a public place without being notified in advance so that they can prepare for it. I’ve heard others willingly pray in public but\ later apologize about the quality of their prayer.

These are just two examples of the tendency to use prayer as a means of impressing others with one’s spirituality rather than as an opportunity to humbly approach God’s throne.

Such prayer without humility is prayer without the heart.

 

-After This Manner, Pray

The Seduction of Prayer: Prayer Without the Heart By J Mark Copeland

The seduction of Prayer By J. Mark Copeland

What do we mean by the seduction of prayer? To seduce means “to allure” and so “to lead astray.” It means “to draw aside from the path of rectitude and duty.”

The seduction of prayer takes place anytime one is allured or led astray from a right understanding of prayer and from a proper practice of prayer.

 

The seduction of prayer is not a process by which one loses interest in prayer and so falls to a state of prayerlessness. It is a process by which one is led to embrace a wrong understanding of prayer, which inevitably leads to an improper practice of prayer.

How can we recognize this seduction of prayer? It is evident when our prayer lives have an appearance of communion with God but lack the substance of such communion. Rather than bringing us close to God, this wrong understanding of prayer drives us further away from God.

As the context of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew’s gospel reveals, Jesus was concerned about the seduction of prayer among both Jews and Gentiles. He warned His disciples to avoid the tendencies in both camps to wrongly understand and improperly practice prayer. From His warnings, we can decipher three characteristics of prayer that has become prey to seductive forces. The seduction of prayer results in:

1. Prayer without the heart

2. Prayer without the will

3. Prayer without the mind

 

-After This manner, Pray

The seduction of Prayer By J. Mark Copeland