"Pray until you pray," some Godly person said. When in high school I was president of a group that made a trip and stopped for a church service. As the president, I was expected to lead a prayer but I clammed up. Probably the meanest guy in the group then ripped off a rant. And a rant it was, for I am sure he did not impress God. But neither did I, for I had never prayed aloud before in public and I was not ready to do so.
But my lack of experience and shyness were very minor factors in that situation. Much earlier I had started to be fascinated and attracted to anything but pleasing God. I did not act out until I entered university, but in my mind I was already above all that Christianity had to offer. Probably only my shyness prevented me from praying a hypercritical and vain prayer at that time.
We learn very early that we can fake prayers and sermons. I remember as a boy playing church with other children, but when they asked me to preach I would not. Part of that was because of shyness, but part was because I had heard the gospel preached in the power of the Holy Spirit and I was too much in awe to mock it. I was introverted but respected preaching too much to fake it. I would like to say I never have done that at all, but I have.
Now reticence about preaching or praying under the influence of the Holy Spirit is largely absent ( and no, I am not referring to crazy hysteria that entertains the weak minded). Instead several churches are like the one in the city of Corinth, who valued speaking in tongues and a guy who was having adultery with his step mom about equally. We may have a good reputation as the church at Sardis had, but they were dead from God's point of view. They no doubt had eloquence prayers and preaching, but as Zachary Poonan, a pastor in Bangalore, India, observed, 99% of the church was 100% wrong about what was going on in Sardis. May God help us not to have play prayers or play sermons, but to be broken, repenting, and walking in the light of the risen Jesus Christ.
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