Repetitive Prayer

Repetition isn't bad if your heart is in it (so to speak) every time. Prayer shouldn't be mindless. I use a prayer book when saying my morning and evening prayers, and I also say the Jesus Prayer as part of my prayer rule.

Here are some prayer resources that I've found helpful:
P r a y e r
Let us
Abbreviated Prayerbook
The Message of the Lord's Prayer
Jesus Prayer - Prayer of the Heart: Power of Name Jesus Christ, Praying the Jesus Prayer, Jesus Prayer Stages, Jesus Prayer's Purpose

No, it's not bad to repeat prayers.

I often pray the Jesus Prayer, the Lord's Prayer, the phrase you mentioned "help my unbelief," etc. Many times I "feel" nothing. What matters is not "trying harder" to be sincere. What matters is that I continue to pray anyway, even when I fail, or doubt.

In the Episcopal Church, we use the Book of Common Prayer, which is a gem. It contains our liturgies & our prayers, for corporate worship & also private devotion.

HannahElizaW said:

One thing I've noticed a lot in my spiritual life is constantly lraying the same thing. Daily, I probably ask God to give me faith in His Son, to guide me throughout the day, to take my desires of sin away, to give me conviction of all my sins and to unveil any unconfessed sins that i tend to harbor in my heart, i also pray "i believe help my unbelief" and Psalms 51:10 repeatedly. Is this bad? To constantly ask for this? Am I doing something wrong? Because i pray, then not feel or think I'm forgiven, then google what I'm doing wrong, people say I have to really mean it so the next time i pray I hope I'm more sincere than previously, but could this be a bad thing? I don't intentionally try to save myself but when people say to "look to the Cross" and then i get weary, and then i get nervous over why i get weary, then i pray, and then this cycle goes back around again. Please help?

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Am glad I'm not the only one who experiences this. I don't feel forgiven either. I often think God bored with my prayers. What I figure is
That at least I'm praying what is really on my heart. We are sincere and I'm sure that counts for a lot

I'm not sure. I think that for me to silence your prayers would be a bad thing. God wants us to pray all of the time.
James 5:16
King James Bible
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

fervent prayer means praying all of the time.

Luke 18:1-8

The Parable of the Persistent Widow
1And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”


I guess the verse about not babbling like pagans is just so that we understand that God hears our prayers every single time?


Matthew 6:7

English Standard Version
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

HannahElizaW said:

One thing I've noticed a lot in my spiritual life is constantly lraying the same thing. Daily, I probably ask God to give me faith in His Son, to guide me throughout the day, to take my desires of sin away, to give me conviction of all my sins and to unveil any unconfessed sins that i tend to harbor in my heart, i also pray "i believe help my unbelief" and Psalms 51:10 repeatedly. Is this bad? To constantly ask for this? Am I doing something wrong? Because i pray, then not feel or think I'm forgiven, then google what I'm doing wrong, people say I have to really mean it so the next time i pray I hope I'm more sincere than previously, but could this be a bad thing? I don't intentionally try to save myself but when people say to "look to the Cross" and then i get weary, and then i get nervous over why i get weary, then i pray, and then this cycle goes back around again. Please help?

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Hello my friend

In this paragraph above you repeatedly expressed your anxiety over your sins and lack of faith and lack of determination and fortitude.

In addition to how to pray more functionally and in a more healthy manner you should really set down the horrible guilt trip you're carrying. You're a good person Hannah and someone has convinced you that you are not. God loves you, the bible says if you tell god about what you did and how you want to do better he will help you and he will cause your wrongs to be as far from you as the east is from the west, there is no condemnation for you. You're not a sinner you're not a bad person, you're good... and the goodness in you is why you're trying so hard be better for god. It's just that someone has guilt tripped you and used that guilt trip to make you a Christian because they didn't know any other way.

God loves and accepts you. You love and accept your kids or loved ones right? How could you imagine god counting out your sins and bothering you about them? Let them go... when you are no longer being burdened by fear and hate and despair and these lies that say you're bad for never being good enough or believing hard enough or watching long enough then you can begin to learn how to talk to him better, but it's basically just talking to him like you would talk to your friends.