Public Prayer

          The other day, I ate a meal with one of my friends - a fellow believer. Before meals, I usually pray over the meal - it's tradition, mind you, and not a command - but I still feel that the habit is as good one for me to have. Anyway, our food arrived at the table and I looked up at him to see if he was ready for one of us to say a prayer. I expected him to do the same, but he didn't even notice me looking up because he was already devouring his meal. I cleared my throat and got his attention, but when he looked up at me, all he said was "what?" I mentioned prayer and I could see the pieces click together in his head. "Oh! I totally forgot about that. I don't usually do that in public anyway. It makes some people uncomfortable."

Hmm...

I told him I was in the habit of delivering a prayer before I ate and asked him if he would mind if we prayed before we ate. He replied with "Sure, I guess." I asked him if he wanted me to pray or if he wanted to do it and surprisingly, he volunteered. We bowed our heads and he said "Dear Lord, thank you. Amen." He barely mumbled it, flew through it as quickly as possible, and then began devouring his food again. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that I think he grabbed the fork before the prayer was even over because I opened my eyes and he already had another bite in his mouth.

Is that really how we see public prayer nowadays?

"I don't usually do that in public. It makes some people uncomfortable."
Then say the quickest prayer possible in order to hurry up and get back to the food.

If we do that with public prayer, that's essentially what we're saying about our Christianity. A conversation with someone that has this kind of attitude would probably go something like this:

"What has changed in your everyday life since you became a Christian and decided to start leading the life described in the Bible?"
"Well, I don't usually do that in public. It makes some people uncomfortable."
"What about those times when you have no other choice or someone confronts you with something relating to your Christianity?"
"I just do the quickest and most indiscreet thing I possibly can to get it over with so I can get back to doing whatever I was doing."


          Now, as I said, I understand that praying about a meal is just a tradition of mine and that's fine. If you don't practice that same tradition, then that's perfectly okay. The thing I'm asking about, however, is your public prayer life. If you don't pray in public, why don't you?

Now, if we do pray in public, but we do it for show, then we are just as wrong as the hypocrites in Matthew 6. Still, there's nothing wrong with praying in public. Don't be ashamed of your Christianity.


          If you just accomplished something great, you're about to undergo a trial, or you're just wanting to remind God that He matters to you and that you're thankful for all he's done, don't be afraid to find a place to pray. Praying silently in your head is just as good as praying out loud, but just don't be afraid to pray. No matter how you do it, don't be afraid to show your Christianity in public. We live in a society where those who are gaining power would love to oppress our Christianity - we live in a society where praying in a public school could get someone suspended. The prosecutor would say that that individual might have possibly offended someone who doesn't have the same religious conviction. It's time for us to stop letting them silence the Word of God.


          We don't have to yell at anyone, go beat anyone with a Bible, go picket something, tell people that "you're going to Hell, you know that right?", or anything else like that - that is offensive and usually entirely unnecessary. We can, however, pray in public, casually bring up Jesus in conversations, invite people to church, and have debates about the validity of our beliefs with people who disagree without being unnecessarily rude. People who get offended when we do things like that need to suck it up. Don't be afraid to show the world who you are - Christianity's enemies definitely aren't afraid to show the world who they are. 

If you don't already do this, next time you eat a meal, pray before the meal. It'll be good for your relationship with God and it might even open a door for someone you're eating with that might not have been opened otherwise. Someone with you might ask you "Why do you pray before a meal?" and boom - there's your opportunity to share the good news with them. You'll never know until you try.

With Christian love,
Ethan