A few weeks back I was talking with some of our folks about corporate prayer. Like at the close of a meeting, when someone may be asked to say a closing prayer. What surprised me were how many people from our own little fellowship that felt uncomfortable saying a public prayer. So we talked about it and the results where interesting.

It seems that even when you are amongst loving friends, we still have fear of rejection and embarrassment. As we talked opening, many agreed that they just felt as if they did not have the right words. Let me rephrase that, they did not feel their words were eloquent or poetic enough for pubic worship. Where have we gone wrong? Why do most people feel this way? Even many of the ones that will pray publicly have issues with this.

Does God want us to have our prayers canned or rehearsed for later us? No, pray should and must be from the heart and the words need to come from the feelings the Holy Spirit placed on you at that moment in time. As we talked, I began to have flash backs of those people that always seamed to have all the right words every time they were called to pray. And as I thought about it I began to listen closely to public prayer, I heard a pattern. Many of these people had a failsafe, general, one-size fits all pray ready for the asking. Talk about sad.

I must admit, there have been times in my life that I knew I was going to be called upon. Sitting and thinking over the last several minutes of a worship service trying to come up with the words that would stop Satan in his tracks. Imagine forgetting about listening to God’s message so that you could impress the congregation with your profound speech. Talk about needing a spiritual enema.

The funny thing, I was putting myself in control and not God. Enough of the confessions of a Pastor. We as followers of Christ need to get reacquainted with Christ. When we do, public prayer gets easier. We realize that God just wants us to talk to Him opening and sincerely. When we have rehearsed prayers we rob ourselves of a blessing. Better yet an intimate moment in real time with the Holy Spirit. It’s no wonder why many Christians loose sight of God. They’ve placed Him in a box. Let God loose so that He can direct your thoughts and words, He will.

So the next time you have a chance to pray publicly, just say OK and talk with God. You just might waken a few Christians from spiritual hibernation.