"It is often asserted that true prayer cannot be willed or ordered, but must flow spontaneously, like water from the spring, from within. If this does not happen, if it does not well up from our innermost being, one had better not pray at all, for forced prayer is untrue and unnatural.
This sounds, at first, convincing; however, if one has gained a fuller understanding of man's nature and religious life, one cannot wholly dismiss the suspicious that those who propound such views have never seriously concerned themselves with prayer." page 3
Rote prayers get a bad rap. For one thing, rote prayers can move the soul powerfully. As a person is dying, they are most often comforted by the prayers and songs of their childhood. Things memorized. Things that build each time repeated and filled with all the events of the past. The times they are prayed in sorrow. The times they are prayed in victory. And even the times they've been said just because without any real feelings behind them.
There is an anonymous saying that's one of my favorites, "You don't have to believe everything you think." You also don't have to believe everything you feel or don't feel.
If you were to believe that God isn't near because you don't feel that God is near than you would go against so many scriptures that repeatedly tell us that God is near.
"Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!" - Psalm 116:2 NLT
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