"And when you pray, you must not pray like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others."
I believe that the modern version of this is when people use public prayers as an opportunity to quote all of the Scripture they have memorized and/or teach their favorite doctrines. Sometimes these prayers go on and on and on, and never actually get around to speaking to God at all.
Think about the futility of using prayer to quote Scripture and teach doctrine. God already knows Scripture and doesn't really need to be reminded -and His theology is already pretty good and He doesn't actually need to be corrected or taught. I do wonder sometimes, though, if our efforts to teach doctrines while praying might be because we know in our hearts that our theology doesn't completely align with His.
This has to be true: prayer that is for the "benefit" of people who are listening, is not actually prayer at all.
Just a wild thought: maybe we should use our prayer times to call out to Father and seek His face?
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