I've been tweeting about prayer; which seems almost sacrilegious to me, not to mention futile. With each twitter post I insinuate that I’m actually saying something significant about the ancient, mysterious, majestic, miraculous practice of prayer in 140 characters or less.
Maybe preaching a sermon on prayer is even more sacrilegious and even more futile. (But I’m still going to try it this Sunday.) Maybe the further you wade in, the deeper you get until finally you drown in the depths of the unfathomable. I’m not sure.
I think it’s worth noting that Jesus taught the disciples how to pray in twitter sized statements. In Luke’s version it’s a three verse tweet. (Luke 11:2-4)
In the ancient world (Greek and Jewish) the common practice was to pray very long, complicated prayers. They thought that quoting lengthy incantations over and over again, just the right way, for a really long time would sort of manipulate God (or the gods) into hearing and answering their prayers. God (or the gods) would have no choice but capitulate to prayers done correctly.
Of course we are far too sophisticated to believe such silliness about prayer now. No modern believer would imagine that they could actually manipulate the creator of the universe by using certain words or phrases; magical incantations that are more about the one praying than the one to whom the prayer is directed.
Things like being sure we claim the answer to the prayer in Jesus name, and being sure to word the prayer so that it sounds like our faith is not actually quite week, and being sure that we banish satanic forces when we pray, and being sure we plead the power of the blood when we pray. Stuff like that.
Maybe we should just pay attention to Jesus’ twitter feed. Maybe prayer is not really that complicated. Maybe it’s pretty simple. Maybe the most powerful prayers are 140 characters or less.
Help!
Thank you!
God, I don’t understand!
God, I’m so angry right now!
Praise God!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Feel free to share your favorite twitter length prayer.
