What is Prayer?
Nowadays I think prayer is a very interesting thing. Originally, or perhaps *not* originally but at least at the heart of the matter, prayer is/was conversation with God. The word implies a request, so perhaps prayer is a poor migration of the word; requests were, in any case, the main reason perhaps to talk to God when the word or its association started. At least, that's what I'd like to think. But I digress.
A bit ago I attended a chapel service in which one of my professors addressed prayer, and how we ought to approach it. His main point was that prayer was "talking things over with God". An interesting point was that prayer posture holds some significance. The typical folded hands is a bit "closed", and perhaps we ought to open them to avoid the closed feeling of the soul that results. I think I agree with this; I have long thought the differences between prayer as it should be and "prayer" as it is approached (publicly at least) interesting and a little troubling. What brought this contrast to my particular notice was when he prayed today in class. His hands were folded, and it was a pretty standard "God, be with us today and help us to…" classtime prayer. But I do not doubt the sincerity of such prayers, or at least not its potentiality.
But there is a marked difference between these two - I'll say "genres" for lack of a better term - of prayer. I'm not sure what I have to say about them. Certainly one is personal and intimate. The other, I think, is more for the benefit of its audience than anything else. This is not to say that the "public" prayers are insincere, however. But God cares not for flowery language or any other formalities, and man does. It is a kind of compromise. I am reminded of the time I sent an e-mail prayer to a family who had recently lost a loved one. It was done up in language, of course, because I intended them to read it. But it was also a sincere plea to God for their comforting.
Each has its own place, I suppose, but the public prayer is more easily departed from God.
Well, there's where the pen-written copy stops. I (future copying-down me) have an observation to make, though. Comforting-prayers are in a way an answer to themselves; they are composed in such a way that they are appreciated, and thereby comfort.