Is repetitive prayer wrong?
- Thread starter Rock022
- Start date
-
Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.
If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!
To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
Z
I don't typically do repetitive prayer just because I don't want the words to become just words. I don't want something to become ritual and not heartfelt at all, as what happened with Israel and all their festivals. They were so ritual that they no longer meant anything to them. The only prayer I can ever think of Jesus saying in the bible was the one in the garden. He gave the people the Lord's prayer and that was really a model prayer, and something that should be prayed every day and can really be form fitted to any season of our lives.
I don't have anything against people who do repetitious prayer, for me it just gets to the point where it becomes no longer heartfelt anymore. Saying the words without really giving them any thought. Know what you're saying. If it is a true and heartfelt desire to God, then repetitious or not, God will meet it.
I don't have anything against people who do repetitious prayer, for me it just gets to the point where it becomes no longer heartfelt anymore. Saying the words without really giving them any thought. Know what you're saying. If it is a true and heartfelt desire to God, then repetitious or not, God will meet it.
Matthew 26:44 Jesus prays in Gethsemane
So leaving them again, He went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words.
There are more verses that talk about repeating prayer, the problem is vain repetitive prayer. The same goes for those who pray for ten minutes in prayer, using their own words and not truly believing them. It is not how many word you use or how much you repeat a word, it is when they are in vain that they are worthless.
I like to repeat this prayers from the heart:
For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole word.
or
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God have mercy on me a sinner.
or
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
So leaving them again, He went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words.
There are more verses that talk about repeating prayer, the problem is vain repetitive prayer. The same goes for those who pray for ten minutes in prayer, using their own words and not truly believing them. It is not how many word you use or how much you repeat a word, it is when they are in vain that they are worthless.
I like to repeat this prayers from the heart:
For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole word.
or
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God have mercy on me a sinner.
or
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
J
GRA that scripture refers to vain repetitive prayer as in prayers you repeat just took good, to check them off your list, or to say you've done your holy duty. A repetitive prayer is not vain unless the heart of the person is vain. That scripture is referring to the motive of the Pray-ER not the words themselves.
"Please show me these verses, so that we may continue the conversation..."
.
.
Just to be clear this is the only one I know where Jesus repeats the same prayers. The other verses are not about Jesus repeating prayer. Do you still want those? Remember it is not really the prayer itself that is the problem, it is any prayer said in vain. Just because I have to say a prayer.
G
"I believe that the verse is referring to such things as 'praying the rosary' - saying the same thing over and over and over - during the same 'session' of prayer. ( i.e., 'when ye pray' )"
The words 'use', 'vain', and 'repetitions' in this verse - together - i.e., "use vain repetitions" - come from the same word in the Greek. The word 'not' is a separate word used to "negate" the meaning.
The point is - it is the use of repetition that is being described as what makes it vain.
In other words:
"No need to say it more than once. Anything more than that is vain."
.
Last edited:
The point is to decide if using repetition in prayer is wrong. We know that words alone is not what God hears, Christ would not do that. We know that Christ followed what God had told the Hebrews to do as they followed Him, and some of that was instruction in prayer. Perhaps Christ did start His day with the Amadah. When He gave us the Lord's prayer, it is really a short form of that prayer.
I was very careful to never use anyone else's words when I spoke with the Lord. Then I read such prayers as the amadah, etc. and it has shown me the way to a closer walk with my Lord.
I was very careful to never use anyone else's words when I spoke with the Lord. Then I read such prayers as the amadah, etc. and it has shown me the way to a closer walk with my Lord.
T
I don't think there's anything wrong with repetitive prayer, if your heart has the right motivation. But I personally find it distracting when people pray and repeat names of God over and over in a prayer, as if God had ADD and didn't know he was being addressed so he needed to be reminded of it. If it helps people communicate with God, great but it's not for me.
I do not believe that 'repetitions' in this verse applies to Jesus praying the same prayer three different times. I think the phrase 'when ye pray' is significant - please see my previous post.
.
.
Mt 6:5 and when you pray do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to prat standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.
Then it tell us to pray in private, then it talks about vain repetitions. It does not say repetitive prayer by itself but vain repetitive. How can you know if a person is praying in vain or not? only God knows this.
What if I pray by just repeating
I love you God
I love you God
I love you God...
And every time is heart felt. Of course there is only but a preference as to how to pray repeating or not. The problem would be to do it with ough love.
And then there is the person who sins, asks forgiveness, pays for the sin, is forgiven by God, and the next day asks for forgiveness for the same sin he asked and received forgiveness for already.
Or the person who is ill, takes it to the Lord in prayer every day. Like Lord, I have arthritus, I have arthritus, I have arthritus.
Or the person who is ill, takes it to the Lord in prayer every day. Like Lord, I have arthritus, I have arthritus, I have arthritus.
When I think of the "babbling like pagans" i am assuming Jesus is referring to chants. a chant is a vain repitition. Vain means useless and has no effect.
Also, if you notice when you look back in Matthew 26 when Jesus is praying he doesnt actually do it repetitively. He prays, talks to the disciples then prays. Each time was "interrupted".He wasn't chanting. He wasnt doing it for show, and each time he prayed he was in more agony to the point blood was dripping from him. Obviously this was coming from his heart to pray to the point you bleed. I don't consider this an example of "repetitive prayer", but probably more like a plea to God. The man was terrified. He knew what was about to happen. I am sure that I would do the same thing too if I was about to be tortured like he was.
He was "in the moment" as well. That's different than praying the same thing day after day after day that is recited.
Also, if you notice when you look back in Matthew 26 when Jesus is praying he doesnt actually do it repetitively. He prays, talks to the disciples then prays. Each time was "interrupted".He wasn't chanting. He wasnt doing it for show, and each time he prayed he was in more agony to the point blood was dripping from him. Obviously this was coming from his heart to pray to the point you bleed. I don't consider this an example of "repetitive prayer", but probably more like a plea to God. The man was terrified. He knew what was about to happen. I am sure that I would do the same thing too if I was about to be tortured like he was.
He was "in the moment" as well. That's different than praying the same thing day after day after day that is recited.