Mary sat in the meeting because she had read the book. So did the ten or eleven other people that were there. Some gave it a quick read the night before and others wrestled the pages full of ink and highlighter. Mary was somewhere in the middle. She read it, but she just couldn't find the passion and peace the author wrote about.

Mary remembered the announcement. "Our book of the month," the pastor beamed, "will be 'The Prayer of Jesus,' by Hank Hanagraph. They are available free of charge to all who want to read it and we will get together next month to discuss it." Mary's heart sank and surged at the same time. She wanted to have a better prayer life, a much better one. How do I get there? Read a book about it? She wasn't sure.

The meeting started with a word of prayer after someone commented that the best way to start a meeting to discuss a book on prayer, would likely be to pray. After a few chuckles, a prayer was offered. The leader first asked if everyone read the book and a multipitched chorus of affirmatives spilled out.

Next question, what is your overall opinion of the book? Has it helped your prayer life? "I just don't get nothin' out of my prayin'," Mary immediately blurted out. She almost surprised herself as much as the others. "I don't know why I even do it," she lamented.

"Let's talk about that," the leader said.

Mary's prayer life is in a rut. Maybe yours is too. Maybe you are in a rut and you don't realize it.

A rut is grooved track made by wheels that can be difficult to get out of. A "prayer rut" is a habit or track we are in that we cannot get out of unless we see it and are intentional. I can remember getting my tractor stuck in the mud when I was farming. Often I would be able to move forwards and backwards a great distance but couldn't get out of the tracks or ruts. I had to enlist some outside help to assist me and pull me out.

Prayer is the natural expression of a heart that is in a relationship with God². We know that communication within any relationship is a natural, necessary, important, vital part of the relationship. The Bible tells us to not get into a rut. So, what does a rut look like in your prayer life? First we'll look at a couple verses about ruts, then a list of some ruts we might find ourselves in.

The overwhelming message in these verses is don't babble on aimlessly, and don't pray for show. Babble in verse 7 above is from battalogew (battalogew) which is literally to speak with a stutter. Battos (Battos) is a stutterer and logew (logew) is to speak. This word here means pointless repetition.

In verse 40 the word for "long" is makra (makra) from which we get macro. Macros comes from mega (mega) from which we get mega. Both words are familiar to us as big, large, and long. Praying like this is using long words and phrases, or lengthy prayers for show.

What we say when we communicate matters. We can learn to communicate better to each other and to God. One writer said,

Let's look at a few ruts we accidentally fall into, but first a word of caution. It is possible to pray with many of the following phrases and still be sincere in our prayers. The purpose of this teaching is not to fall into endless second guessing over everything we pray, but to think about what we are saying. I struggle with using some of the following phrases myself, but I want to learn. I want you to learn with me. I want to learn to say what I really mean in some cases, and in other times I want to avoid pointless repetition.

Some common prayer ruts are:

1. Repeating words. The use of certain words is never wrong, but spoken repeatedly (every 4-5 words, or 2-3 times per sentence) can be a rut. Some accidentally repeated words are Father, Father God, Lord, we just, just bless, and others.
2. Cliché phrases. It isn't wrong to use any of the following phrases. The challenge is that we might use these phrases out of habit, and we could often be more specific.
   1. "Guide and direct"
   2. "Who you are and what you mean"
   3. "Lead and guide"
   4. "Be with"
   5. "Just help"
3. Lack of specificity.
   1. We are to pray for rulers everywhere, and kings, and authorities. Often I think it might be better to pray for 2 or 3 missionaries by "name and need" than to pray for "all the missionaries in the world." Be as specific as possible.
   2. We are to pray for God to help people, but often we could pray for the specific help needed. Instead of "help" Joby Smith, we might pray for Joby Smith to grow in his walk with God or learn to trust God in his current trial or glorify God while his body suffers. We might pray that God would show us how to help him in specific ways.
4. Meaningless phrases. Some phrases are not what we mean at all. "Please be with" is an example of a phrase to avoid. The Holy Spirit indwells the believer and is ever present. We might pray for a person to be aware of the power or presence of God instead of praying "be with." We might pray for a person's eyes to be opened to the ever present God while they stumble along in the fog. Similarly to "help Joby" in the above example, we can often be more specific by saying what we really mean.
5. Treadmill praying. Treadmill praying is praying for the same things every time you pray. It is easy to fall into this rut. The growing Christian aware of his or her surroundings finds ever changing things to bring to the Lord. God wants us to pray for a lot more than having a nice day and thanking him for our food.
6. Elevating circumstances over character. God uses trials to refine us. We must always remember to pray for that part of the equation. It could be a rut to pray only for the relief needed for a certain challenge without praying for spiritual growth and insight needed to overcome through the challenge.
7. Public prayer at the expense of private prayer. This is especially difficult for Christian workers who pray often with others as they minister to them. Praying in Church, in prayer meetings, in staff meetings, in committee meetings, and with hurting people in their homes must not replace private prayer. Seek and savor private time with God alone to renew your strength.

Friends, don't switch on the verbal autopilot when you pray. Take the time to think and say what you mean. If you have to pause to do that, God will wait.

Copyright © 2005 by Kevin Binkley