July 15, 2025

Minding Your Thoughts

A Biblical Overview of Obtaining and Maintaining a Biblical Thought Life

Matthew 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Do you like to pray? I especially like to pray just before I go to sleep. It is a privilege to lay my head down on my pillow and talk to my Lord and Savior. I can review the day, I can ask Him to forgive all the rotten things I’ve done, I can ask Him to help some situation I know I will face tomorrow, I can ask Him to be with someone that may be on my mind, I can simply tell Him I love Him and thank Him for being so good to me, or I can just talk to Him about whatever is on my mind. Most nights I fall asleep praying and when I wake up, I like to begin the day with a prayer.

Some nights however, nights when I am extremely tired or emotionally overwhelmed, or simply so convoluted in my thinking that I don’t know what to pray I pray a simple prayer; a prayer I learned as a young child. You probably know it, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, and if I die before I wake, I pray my Lord my soul to take.”  I’m 65 years old and on rare occasions I still pray that simple prayer.

Is that a violation of this Scripture? I think not. Special prayers that are memorized and offered at special times which are heartfelt, and sincere God will not reject. Remember the qualification of the prayers Jesus speaks of in today’s verse. Those prayers are only “vain repetition.”  For example, the repetition of the words “I love you” can be vain or real. It depends on the actions of the one uttering those words. Most never grow tired of hearing someone tell them that they love them. Likewise, I hope that my Father in heaven never grows tired of me praying what I can when I can even if it is something I’ve prayed before. However, if the only time one prays, they pray memorized prayers, only to be heard, or to impress instead of worship, these may be offered in vain. Prayer to me is simply talking to God, communing with Him, and offering words of worship to Him as well as petitioning Him to be active in my life.

In one’s thinking there is no valid reason to believe that ritualistic, impersonal, formalized, and formulaic prayers will be heard because they are endlessly repeated. However it may be that humble, straight forward, sincere, Scriptural, and earnest prayers God receives; even if they may be in the form of a poem.

May the Lord bless and be pleased with your thought life today.

Dr. William Howe