I’ve got a short attention span. I rarely watch movies because most are simply too long to keep my interest. Thus, Melissa and I almost never go to a theater for fear that I’ll waste the ticket price and start scrolling on my phone instead of paying attention to the film’s plot. Instead, I like to watch half-hour or one-hour shows (max) on DVR at home—that way we can fast-forward through the commercials and then move on to something else. I can generally keep focused for up to 50 minutes.

And, even as a preacher, I don’t like long sermons, although I’ve been known to give long ones. Sitting and listening to a pastor requires real effort on my part. I once attended the wedding of a friend who was a youth pastor in another church. His senior pastor performed the ceremony and gave a 45-minute message, read word for word from a printed script! I just about lost my religion on that one! All I could think of was, “Say ‘amen’ brother and let these two kids go on their honeymoon.”

If truth be known, my personal devotional life seldom includes an extended prayer time. I do pray, I just don’t pray for long periods of time. Honestly, when I try to be really “spiritual” and pray longer than normal I find that I usually fall asleep or start doing a chore around the house or check my email. So, I am glad Jesus gave the following instructions on prayer:

7 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺, 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘴, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴. 8 𝘋𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘍𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘩𝘪𝘮.

𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘸 6:7-8 𝘕𝘐𝘝

Admittedly, I don’t think Jesus is telling us that long prayers are bad. And I am thankful for sisters and brothers in Christ who have a gift for prayer and find it easy to spend an hour or more lifting up the needs of others to the Heavenly Father. Even I can pray for an extended period of time when I am really struggling to know God’s will, or am interceding for a loved one who is sick, or am trying to make sense of a difficult and emotional situation. 

But I am grateful that our Savior doesn’t require prayers to be verbose to be authentic. In fact, He warns against “babbling” on and on about the same thing. Many words will not gain more attention from the Lord. A few sincere words far outweigh a lengthy litany of laments and appeals. God already knows what’s going on in your life. He knows what you need even before you come to Him. You don’t have to inform Him of anything other than the fact that you’re asking for His help, His direction, His plan. 

I don’t want to be guilty of “babbling” here, so let me just end with this. Don’t be too harsh on yourself if you can’t regularly sit down and pray for X amount of time. Prayer is a conversation with God. Tell Him what’s on your heart and believe He understands. Ask Him to speak to you and to be with you throughout your day. Don’t stress out if you find it impossible to spend your whole day on your knees. According to Jesus, that really may not be necessary.

𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳:

𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴, 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘠𝘰𝘶. 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘠𝘰𝘶. 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦. 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦. 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘯.