How Not to Pray – An Object Lesson
by Ed Rodatus, 1992

Praying with Empty Words
[Take an empty pitcher and “pour” into a cup.]
Matthew 6:7
“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling [empty words] like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”

Praying Without Faith
[Pour water next to a cup, missing the cup.]
Mark 11:23-24
“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Praying Apart from God’s Will – Praying Amiss
[Pour water onto the bottom of a cup spilling it over the sides.]
James 4:3
“When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

Praying Without Love
[Sprinkle water onto to the side of the cup.]
1st Corinthians 13:1
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Praying Without Honoring Wife
[Sprinkle water onto my wife.]
1st Peter 3:7
“Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.”

Praying to be Seen of Men
[Sprinkling water onto the audience.]
Matthew 6:5
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.”

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Praying Onto God – Accepting His Will
[Pour water into cup.]
Luke 22:41-42
“He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Mark 10:38-39
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
“We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with…”

[Drink the cup of water thus accepting God’s will.]