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The Power of Written Prayers

We're all biased in many ways. The tradition we grew up in, our family life, nationality, language, and many other factors contribute to the way we look at the world. As we all know this happens in our churches too. We get used to one way of doing things or even try to be different from other groups. This can have the unfortunate effect of leaving us without some excellent tools for spiritual growth and discipline.

One such thing is prayer. Most people I know from my particular tradition are very much against pre-written, repeated prayers. They want prayers to be "authentic" and "from the heart," so all prayers are therefore improvised. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this way of praying, but there is also nothing wrong with praying through an already written prayer. In fact, I'd argue that sometimes it's better.

Written prayers help us pray when we don't know what to say. Too often I think instead of using a written prayer or even being silent in meditation on God we just don't pray if we have nothing to say. Pray becomes something that we do when we feel like it. It's more about us than about God.

Written prayers help us focus on what matters so that when we do pray from the heart we have been calibrated, so to speak, towards God. Writing down prayers to be used repeatedly means you can put a lot of thought and care into expressing God's majesty, glory, and providence that will immediately put things into perspective.

Written prayers help us in our theology and understanding of God. If you think out beforehand what you will pray (especially for public prayer) you are less likely to make some theological error. Prayer is, in many ways, putting our theology into practice. It is an active encounter with the living God.

There are many more benefits to written, repetitive prayers I could mention. Of course I'm not saying that this is the only way to pray. It's wonderful that we can go directly to God immediately and from the heart anytime. However, if we want to make prayer a more regular part of our lives it helps to take intentional steps in that direction.

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