Thank you for your explanation. It seems to me that God only asks us to do what we a comfortable doing. Although sometimes it doesn't seem comfortable until we try it. But public prayer on my part doesn't seem authentic, it seems to be a ritual that is expected. A performance. I'm speaking only for myself.



There is a sermon by Paul Tillich that your comment brings to my mind. In Everything Give Thanks. In it he speaks of an attitude of silent gratitude as being prayer. Here is a quote from it:

The abundance of a grateful heart gives honor to God even if it does not turn to Him in words.... ...rejoicing is a spontaneous obedience to the exhortation of our text - "Rejoice always!" It is then possible to understand our text when it says- "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything!" It certainly does not mean - "never feel sorrow, day and night use words of prayer and thanks!" Jesus characterizes this way of imposing oneself on God as a perversion of religion. Then what do these exhortations mean? They mean just what we called the state of silent gratefulness that may or may not express itself in prayers. - Paul Tillich, in Chapter 16 of The Eternal Now

That sermon was really a help to me when I began to feel that so many words in my prayers were superfluous. It could be made into a nice sermon for the Thanksgiving season. You can read the entire sermon online here:

http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=1630&C=1612

~d.allan

We could wonder what they will be doing at the time directions are spoken to the People of Zion, living in the Jerusalem of the future. Is Jerusalem so big that they could get lost without a guide?