a young reformed blog designed to edify

Ever feel nervous during public prayer? Someone asks you to pray or you are taking turns praying and you get this thing inside of you that says, “Whew, ok. What to say, what to say. Ok, what hasn’t been said. Oh no, that guy said what I was going to say. I have to come up with something new now cause my idea was taken. What are these people going to think?”

I encourage you to read this list called, “Using God’s Name as a Comma”. Here is point number 3 of 10 on the list. If you do not read the rest of the points, this point can be ripped out of the context of the writer’s intent and appear legalistic.

3. Use God’s name carefully
Many Christians, especially older Christians, find it painful to hear “Lord” or “Father God” used as the capital letter, comma, semi-colon, and full stop of every sentence in a prayer. It is something young Christians and young pastors are prone to default to, unthinkingly, as they understandably struggle for words in public prayer. Some years ago, a kind older Christian pointed out my own tendency to do this. As soon as it was pointed out to me, I was horrified at the careless and thoughtless way I was using God’s name. I was most certainly breaking the third commandment. Once I started to slow down and pause more, I did this much less.

I believe that this list to check yourself against is an indicator of one’s approach to God. Our view on public prayer parallels our private prayer and communion with the Triune God. Let our prayers in both public and private environments be real, raw, honest and transparent. Tune out the cares of the world (Mark 4:19) so that the Word can flow out of you through prayer.

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