1 Kings 8:38-40 (NASB)
whatever prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart, and spreading his hands toward this house; then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive and act and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know, for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men, that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.

There has been much debate whether ready-made prayers are appropriate to use when in private prayer. C.S. Lewis discussed this with his friend Malcom in a letter to him. Neither Lewis nor Malcom thought that only ready made prayers were to be used in our private prayer life, save the Lord’s Prayer. However, Lewis was not as strict as Malcom in this respect.

Lewis’s view of ready made prayers was as a conductor leading the orchestra. The ready made prayers were used as the motion of the conductor, but not the music itself. They can provide a framework to lead us into our communion with God.

Solomon rightly noted in his dedication of the temple prayer that all people know the affliction of their own hearts. Using someone else’s words cannot express our thoughts and worship as well as our own.

Lewis cautioned though, that even our own words can become repetitious and rote and that the use of prayers written by others can help to break that natural tendency.

Our ability to pray one way or another is not something that is always present. Lewis, for several years following his conversion, attempted to pray without words at all. He didn’t use the name of people he was praying for, but rather brought into his mind the mental image of the person. This type of prayer was not something that he could do on demand. His ability to pray this way seemed to come and go. So, it must be with our prayers. Sometimes we need the encouragement of other’s written prayers to focus us in our communion with God. Other times, our words flow without restriction.

Father, I pray that my prayers would come from the heart, regardless of whether they are my words or those of another. Keep my thoughts only on You and allow my worship to be fresh each time I lift my prayers to Jesus. Amen.

Always praying for the glory of God,