A Thousand Useless Words Are Not Equal In Value To One Holy Thought
“When you pray, don’t be like those people who don’t know God. They continue saying things that mean nothing, thinking that God will hear them because of their many words.”
~ Matthew 6:7
The Christian Life Of Prayer
“A thousand useless words are not equal in value to one Holy thought.”
Mean what you say - say what you mean. That principle has served me well throughout my life, though sometimes it has initiated disagreements to say the least. Now this isn’t to say that I have never spoken a lie, if I were to claim that I’d be lying. I suppose I mean it as more about us understanding the value of our words. Simply saying something and saying it often does not make it true. A thousand useless words are not equal in value to one Holy thought. And so yes this principle stands as true, even in light of the admonition we learn from the scriptures to pray and pray often. Continual prayer that is not born of the heart is truly empty, I might also say it is graceless. You could say it is akin to begging. And what reward is there if our prayers are like calling in a debt, where is grace then?
Why is it that so often we get to thinking that we must reach across time and space by virtue of our efforts and our wordy prayers? Also, why do we look to this and to that in order to aid us in attracting God’s attention? Is Grace really so unreachable? If He is, then how is it that he knows the things we need even before we ask him? (Matthew 6:8) The answer is a simple one, prayer requires more from our hearts then it ever does from our eloquence of words. Our faith in prayer that is built upon our trust and confidence in what the LORD can do in us is far superior to any words we could say to him. Even so, I suppose if I were pressed to share my human words that I believe might please God, even though I know nothing I can say will lay hold of him, those words would simply be, “Father I love you.” Our prayers, even those few, are huge when our trust in him is equally as great.
The word (battologeō) used here “vain repetitions” is borrowed from a name for a Greek poet, which means endless, tedious, useless words. And yet it isn’t so much a matter of counting the numbers of words. What’s being expressed and exposed here is the heart behind the words and the motivations that leads one to believe that the LORD cannot hear them (or hears better) otherwise.
I think often times it is our desperate situations that bring about these attempts to try almost anything and everything in order to get God to notice our situation. That’s human nature. In those times, remember Romans 8:37-39…engrave it upon your heart and mind and then hang your prayers upon the promise held within.
“But in all these things we have full victory through God who showed his love for us. Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~ Romans 8:37-39