Prayer is fundamentally a personal conversation with God. In it, we share our thanksgiving, adoration, and praise, along with requests for ourselves and others.

True prayer isn’t meant to be a public performance designed to impress onlookers. It shouldn’t be filled with empty phrases or meaningless repetition, as Jesus himself cautioned against in Matthew 6:5-8.

I recently attended a worship service where I observed a man praying in a manner that seemed more focused on impressing the congregation with his spirituality than on communicating with God. He adopted an unnatural vocabulary and even incorporated archaic King James English expressions into his prayer.

The essence of prayer isn’t about crafting eloquent, impressive words but about expressing genuine thoughts to God. When you begin to worry about how others perceive your prayer, you’ve already lost sight of its purpose. The opinions of others should not matter in the context of prayer; our sole focus in prayer should be God.