Prayer is one of our tools to live in freedom throughout our day. Yet, Jesus gives us a warning when it comes to our key communication device: don’t play on the phone!
Jesus said, “Don’t talk just to hear your voice.” He actually said, “When you pray, do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” (Matt. 6:7-8) Are you talking just to talk, thinking God will be impressed with you? If you want to taste and see that the LORD is good, you must stop playing on the phone.
Talk with God from your heart. Formula and repetitive prayers can lead to dryness when you’re only saying words, not expressing your heart. If your friends said the same thing to you over and over again, what would you do? Truthfully, you’d probably tune them out. Yet, you’d be all ears if they were opening up!
God doesn’t tune us out, but He can’t help us if we don’t open up with Him either. He can tell if it’s show, a Sunday morning-only expression, or a heart-felt desire to communicate with the only One who can give us victory over our drugs of choice. So the next time you talk with Jesus, open up. Be real. He knows everything anyways and still says, “I love you!”