Short Prayers

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today 

June 10, 2025

Short Prayers

“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!

Matthew 6:7-8 

Verses 7 & 8, quoted above, are Jesus’ introduction to teaching us The Lord’s Prayer. Jesus’ prayer is just sixty-two words. It is short and succinct. It is the exact opposite of babbling prayers that repeat words again and again.

Max Lucado, in his book, When God Whispers Your Name, has a list of short statements that I believe can graciously inform our prayers.

 

Pray all the time. If necessary, use words.

God forgets the past. Imitate him.

Greed I’ve often regretted. Generosity – never.

Don’t ask God to do what you want. Ask God to do what is right.

No one is useless to God. No one.

Nails didn’t hold God to a cross. Love did.

You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you.

My Takeaway: We often close our worship service by praying, Gloria in Excelsis (Glory to God in the Highest). This prayer, only twice as long as the Lord’s Prayer, extolls the virtues, the grace and mercy, of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. I’ve found it helpful to graciously inform my prayer life.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.