Confused About Prayer

I'm participating in a short drama in church this coming Sunday. It's about prayer and the different ways that people approach God in prayer as grovelers, supplicants, formalists or what have you. I'm looking forward to the Lenten sermons and the theme of prayer that the priestly caste has chosen, because I have a lot of questions about prayer.

I am not a big fan of public prayer where one person leads a group out loud. Isn't that just sermonizing? "Lord, we just want to praise your name, Lord and Lord, we just want to thank you for the chance to be here in fellowship, Lord and Lord, we just want to be open to being used by you, Lord, and Lord, bless us and keep us safe...." I reckon my prayers are most efficacious when I can't even articulate coherent thoughts let alone speechify, when the Spirit within me groans.

Jesus taught us to pray alone, in secret. He even gave us a form of prayer that I have recited thousands of times without giving too much thought to what it signifies. We used to have to recite it every morning in school right before we prayed to the flag. We recite it every Sunday in church, only now we say "debts" instead of "trespasses". I usually end public prayers that I lead with the Lord's Prayer because then I don't have to come up with as much.

It seems to me that much of the Lord's Prayer involves acknowledging things: God is our father, His Name is holy, His will is going to be done on Earth and in Heaven, His is the Kingdom and glory, and His Kingdom is coming. Then there are the requests for favors: sustain us for today, don't let us be tested, keep us from evil, and grant us mercy in the same measure that we ourselves are merciful.

These requests come after acknowledging the will of God and seem to me to reflect a hope that God's will includes allowing these favorable conditions to prevail. We should be very grateful indeed if we are not tested, although we may well be. Evil may well befall us, and we should be grateful whenever it doesn't. We may not have all that we need, and we should be grateful whenever we have enough. The part about asking for only so much mercy as we ourselves mete out is hard for me to understand unless it is meant as guidance as to what our frame of mind should be when we approach God. All the requests reflect a particular frame of mind, one of humility and gratitude and acceptance. Whoever mindfully prays the Lord's Prayer must be one who does justice, loves mercy and walks humbly with his God.

I fall short in almost every respect when it comes to having the right frame of mind to pray. I am an ingrate. I want more than enough, and I require more mercy for myself than I am capable of giving others. I definitely am not looking to be tested, though. I've got that down. I have been tested many times, and I have more often than not failed. So at least I have that going for me.

One question I have always struggled with is why pray at all when you know that God's will is going to be done no matter what. If I am destined to get hit by a meteor today, no amount of praying is going to keep that meteor away from me.