As I was teaching the folks I pastor about prayer I was reminded of extremes in my past life.

I was never taught how to pray. I gained much benefit from stumbling across a copy of John R. Rice’s “Prayer, Asking And Receiving.”

Having never been taught the fundamentals of prayer, I had one excess that I wish to mention here. That excess was the fact that, if I didn’t feel as I thought I should feel, I would repeat my private prayer until I was at least partially satisfied. In so doing, I did not realize that I was engaging in “vain repetitions.”

Why did I do that? Because I wasn’t taught how to pray, and because I had heard much about how sweet it was to “ride down the road praying, and feel the presence of God so strongly that it was as if you could reach out and put your arm around Him.”  I had decided that prayer was a sort of mystical experience instead of a simple heartfelt appeal to God for Him to help us and glorify Himself in us.

It truly isn’t difficult to teach that prayer is presenting our requests to God in faith. Why is something so simple, yet so important, as this neglected?

If this happens so easily in the matter of prayer, what extremes are possible in other matters? What about the deity of Christ, or repentance, or other important fundamental doctrines?

Brothers, let us get back to the basics of teaching Scripture and not the riding of hobby-horses.

Just musing…..