As a former pentecostal and now episcopalian, I appreciate our Book of Common Prayer. It a wonderful collection of thoughtful prayer by people who cared enough to share them with others in the church. It takes out the grossly obviously competition of prayer which I found to be a turn off in the pentecostal church. Our prayer book allows the whole church to pray in unison as a community. It’s a powerful experience to be praying together as one. It brings us closer as a community and, more importantly, brings us closer to God.

As an individual, there are times when I can’t find the right words to express how I feel. Thankfully, someone has put in to words the emotion I couldn’t readily articulate. Have you ever quoted the Bible or a song in your prayer? Do you think of that as less effective than *not* quoting?

Quite frankly, if an old drunk wrote prayerful words, I wouldn’t care. What matters most is that God hears it from my lips as I speak them from the bottom of my heart. Who cares who wrote them and when, as long as the intent is to praise, thank and acknowledge our wonderful God and his work.

My questions to you are:
What qualifies as praying in the Holy Spirit and who requires it?
Who came up with these qualifications and who is judging them?
Personally, I would prefer that I and my prayers be judged by God.

God’s Peace.

Marsha
http://www.twitter.com/MarshasHead

too often the words are seen as magical formulas … I agree bishop … it is about the heart … not how ‘spiritually correct’ one is … I think kenneth hagin once said, “you can be wrong in your head and right in your heart, and the LORD will still answer your prayers” … I go with this one … bless … dom

I totally agree with you, Bishop. Prayer should come from the heart, even if the person feels like they don’t know how to pray. God knows where the person’s heart is at. And then, we must also consider the question “How does GOD feel about prayers being read from a prayer book?” We are praying to establish relationship and worship with Him.

I also wonder how He feels about reciting The Lord’s Prayer. This prayer was used as an example of prayer. There was no instruction to recite this example. Jesus was using this sample prayer to teach us how to pray – what we need to consider when we pray.

Prayer needs to come directly from the individual’s heart. God wants us just as we are.

Look at the two words in the scripture, effectual and fervent. Effectual – producing or able to produce the desired effect. Fervent – exhibiting or marked by great intensity or feeling. This scripture, James 5:16, was written by a Jewish-Christian in the first century, when the church was still following many Jewish customs, such as standard prayer. Since the institution of the Temple Cultus (the establishment of the Solomonic Temple), the Jewish faith has always had standard and published prayers. I am not against extemporaneous prayers, as a matter fact I pray often. But if I was sick, and I called my priest and he came to the hospital, opened his Book of Common Prayer to 453 (Ministration to the Sick), I have faith that God will move on my behalf. If I am in need of encouragement and I open my BCP to page 832 and recite the prayer, I have faith that God will strengthen my heart. The question is: is your faith in the prayer or in God?

I think it is a matter of opinion. I am a big fan of Apostle John Eckhardts bok: ‘the Prayers That Rout Demons”. Sometimes the prayers in a book helps, but we should rely on them since we have the Word of God with us.