Let my prayer come before You; Incline Your ear to my cry. (Psalm 88:2)

           Not long ago I read an advertisement from Canada.  It was for a “talking prayer doll.”  This caught my eye!  The ad went on to say that the doll “kneels and says her bedtime prayers.”  There was nothing to wind nor strings to pull.  Whenever the user wanted, the doll would say:

“Now, I lay me down to sleep
I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep.
Guide me safely through the night,
Wake me with the morning light.
God bless Mommy…and Daddy
And make me a good girl.  Amen.”

           “Just press her tummy,” said the ad, and “Patty recites the entire children’s bedtime prayer, in her precious childlike voice.  Operates on a single penlight battery.  Available also in French.”
           How easy it is to allow our prayers to become mechanical!  We crank out petitions and intercessions, but with no real life!  They may be biblically correct and theologically sound, but if there is no reality to them, God does not hear our prayers.
          To the people of Israel who were offering mechanical prayers to God, He said, When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear (Isaiah 1:15).  This points out to me that not all prayers are heard in heaven.  Some prayers never get higher than the ceiling.  The following seems to capture the whole point:

“I often say my prayers, but do I really pray?
And do the wishes of my heart go with the words I say?
I may as well kneel down and worship gods of stone
As offer to the living God a prayer of words alone.
For words without the heart the Lord will never hear;
Nor will He to those lips attend whose prayers are not sincere.”

        May our prayers be a delight and not a duty as we sincerely and lovingly meet with our Lord each day.  Psalm 145:18, The Lord is near unto all those who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.

Carolyn HibbardWriter for “Real Victory for Real Life”  365 Devotional Thoughts in the Spirit of America’s KeswickVOLUME 2
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