1) Keep your prayers very short, like this: "Lord, please heal Paul's knee." I believe this is much better than, "Lord, we just want to come before you Father in a spirit of humility and supplication and lift up our brother Paul. You know Father he's been struggling with his right knee, and it makes it difficult for him to manage the stairs at his job. He needs his job, Father. So we just want to come before your throne of grace and just ask that you would be with Paul in a special way...". Five minutes later, you still haven't asked God to do anything about Paul's knee! And the people around you who closed their eyes for the sake of reverence now can't open them because they're asleep.
2) Pray often. Don't pray one long prayer and then assume that all your prayer responsibilities are done. It is better to pray lots and lots of little prayers, and to add your little bit onto the requests that somebody else already "covered". For example, after the request above, somebody else might pray, "And help Paul not to get discouraged in the meantime." And another, "And please provide the money to cover medical expenses." And another, "For as long as you see fit to leave Paul with a gimpy leg, please use it to bring about some good that would not otherwise have occurred." This keeps everyone awake and makes it true communal worship. With frequent little requests we listen to one another and harmonize our prayers, and are less prone to check out mentally because we've already done our one prayer and now somebody else is doing his. In basketball terms, it's called "ball movement." What is good for team basketball is also good for corporate prayer.
3) Actually ask for something. Years ago I attended a prayer meeting where brother Jim would say, "We pray for Fred. And we pray for Heather. And we pray for Vacation Bible School. And we pray for our community. And we pray for...". Jim would go through a long list without specifying what he wanted God to do for any of the people or things on the list. While it may seem humble to throw a name at God and let him do whatever is best, I think it is a mistake to pray that way. It comes perilously close to not praying at all. We are commanded, "Let your requests be made known to God" (Philippians 4:6). In Mark 10:51, Jesus, rather than healing blind Bartimaeus directly, made him verbalize his petition by asking, "What do you want me to do for you?" As Fledge explained to Digory concerning Aslan in The Magician's Nephew, "He likes to be asked."
4) Pray simply. Veteran Christians often adorn their prayers with jargon-filled churchese. If this is your temptation, stop it. All it does is intimidate new believers into silence because they can't pray like you. It is much better to say, "God, please help me to be a better Christian" than "May the glorious indwelling of your Spirit uplift and uphold the exaltation of your name in the habitation of your holy dwelling among the praises of your people" etc. If you say, "But I'm trying to sound like the Psalmist!" I would answer, "You're not the Psalmist. You're you." It's fine to quote Shakespeare, but usually when somebody tries to imitate Shakespeare he just sounds like an idiot.
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