“As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil to make mindless offerings to God. Don’t make rash promises, and don’t be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few.” – Ecclesiastes 5:1-2
I think about this sometimes on Wednesdays when we meet for prayer. I typically have a list of prayer requests – many of them items that I’ve promised people we would pray for. And while it’s entirely reasonable for me to keep my word and pray with the team in intercession for others, it sometimes feels like a rambling discourse, like a Gentile who “thinks they will be heard for their many words.” (Matthew 6:7)
So, what is the proper overlap between “Be still and know that I am God,” (Ps 46:10), “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” (Hab 2:20), and “Cast all your cares on him, for he cares for you.” (1 Pet 5:7) and “in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” (Phil 4:6)? How do we honor God both in reverent silence and in active pleading?
I’ve shared the word picture many times of our unspeakably kind Abba Father inviting his child to climb up on his lap, tell him about our day, and ask him for anything we want, knowing he will sort out how best to answer. I think this is a great way to think of what happens when we pray. And I think that he prefers honesty to religiosity – meaning it’s better to come to him in authentic faith because it shows that we “believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” (Heb 11:6) The truth is that he sees the depth of my faith much better than I do.
But if it’s true that “the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam 16:7) and that “He is no respecter of persons.” (Acts 10:34 KJV), and that “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom,” (Prov 9:10), then all of my asking ought to be preceded by cautious, reverent, awe-inspired and honest openness; in no way making demands or telling him what to do.
Maybe part of the purpose of the gift of prayer is to both show us more of the character of God and to reveal to us more of our own character so that we begin to see ourselves the way he sees us – deeply flawed, but completely loved. Because of this, I think you could say that when we pray, part of the answer to the prayer is the prayer itself.
Maybe at the end of the day, we just have to live in the tension between speaking and listening, sincere asking and reverent silence, advising and trusting, hope for outcomes and settled trust in a Sovereign God. It’s no coincidence that we can hold seemingly opposite truths at the same time – the Creator included this in his design parameters so we would “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Prov 3:5)
“Thus says the LORD, who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it – the LORD is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.’” (Jer 33:2-3) There is no better reason to pray.
