Prayer – To Whom?

Someone said to our Preacher a while back, “I could not hear the last of your prayer this morning – you got so soft it was inaudible.” Knowing our Preacher you might suspect that he would say something controversial or subject to misunderstanding. His reply, “I wasn’t talking to you.”

What is prayer really? We could talk about that for a long time. Pastor Black, Chaplain for the United States Senate, in an interview this week indicated the following: “His prayers are not only for the lawmakers’ ears, but for God’s.” (Yahoo News) That is a very interesting thought. I am convinced that often our prayers are for someone’s ears other than God’s. I feel that to be especially true when prayers are “written.” Certainly there are times and places where prayer might be scripted, but even then, it is wasted if it is designed for ears other than God’s.

The Scripture talks about entering into one’s closet when one prays. Perhaps that admonition is relevant because it is difficult to pray aloud in public without some concern about who will hear, or how they will hear, or what they might make of our prayer. The Truth is – prayer is for God’s ears. Jesus most often prayed alone (while some of those prayers are recorded, it would be the “inspired” work of writing Scripture that would record them). His design was to speak to His Father, not massage the ears or egos of transient listeners.

I, for one, am going to remember that when I cannot “hear” the prayer of another Believer, I have no reason to be concerned. Hopefully, he/she is not speaking to me anyway.