There is another value to this tradition of prayer—using the prayers of other believers like this, keeps us from trivializing prayer. What do I mean by that? Well, the prayers in the Scripture usually take up important matters, and sometimes we can trivialize our prayer. We have to be careful not to misunderstand me: sometimes our prayers almost degenerate into a kind of convenient-store prayer. We think that the Lord would get us out of some jam so we will have a little relief in our circumstances. Please understand, I am not saying God does not care about our distresses, but we cannot just not want to be bothered about something but then look upon God as our sort of errand's boy to bail us out. Sometimes, if we are not careful, it can happen that someone who walks in when a group of people praying together, and if you stepped into that prayer meeting you would think that one of the most important things is aunt Minnie being delivered from her dyspepsia or something. Now, I am not saying that such matters are above God’s concern, but sometimes we can get involved in relative trivia.

In the Bible prayers, you do not find that. No, what you find in Bible prayers is the concern that we grow in knowing God. That we have a longing for the kingdom and kingship of God to come. We are so concerned about our own personal kingdom that we do not care about whether God’s kingship comes. But Bible prayers correct that. Bible prayers place the emphasis and the concern upon God’s suffering people, who need grace to be borne up in their troubles because they are staggering under the load. That is what Bible prayers centre around. So, do not despise the tradition of prayer. You may need it.¹

Ralph Davis