What Did Christ Jesus Say?

“When praying, do not say the same things over and over again, just as the people of the nations do, for they imagine they will get a hearing for their use of many words.”a (Matthew 6:7) Other versions express it this way: “In your prayers, do not go babbling on like the heathen.” (The New English Bible) “In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do.”​—Revised Standard Version.

Some people confuse verbosity with piety, fluency with devotion, repetition and length with a guaranteed response. However, God does not measure the value of a prayer by the yard or meter. Obviously, Jesus did not want his followers to use rigid formulas or to recite prayers. Hence, of what lasting value are rosaries, prayer books, or prayer wheels?

After saying the above, Jesus went on to give his disciples a model prayer​—the well-​known Lord’s Prayer. (Matthew 6:9-13) But did he intend for them to keep parroting those very words? No. In fact, when restating it more than a year later, not even Jesus used the exact words. (Luke 11:2-4) Is there any record of early Christians’ doing so or of their repeating other formal prayers? Again, no.

Does this mean that we cannot mention the same point or request many times? Not at all, for Jesus also said: “Keep on asking, and it will be given you; keep on seeking, and you will find.” (Matthew 7:7) It is often necessary for us to make the same request many times. Jehovah thereby sees how earnest we are in our requests and how deeply we feel about the matter.

For example, in the fifth century B.C.E., living as a member of the Judean exile community in Babylon was a devout man named Nehemiah. He was the royal cupbearer to the Persian king. When he was told that his kinsmen, the settlers in Judea, were faring badly, he prayed “day and night” for their relief. (Nehemiah 1:6) His prayers were favorably heard. Jehovah moved the sympathetic Persian ruler to grant Nehemiah the authority to make a trip to Jerusalem to set matters straight. This he did, to the happiness of his people and the preservation of their faith.​—Nehemiah 1:3–2:8.