Am I the only one who finds recorded prayer to be little bit awkward?
Imagine that you and five friends are watching a three-year-old video recording of a pastor delivering a message. As the sermon comes to an end, the pastor closes with a prayer. You look around the room and see that three of your friends are praying with their heads down while you exchange unsure glances with the other two.
What do you do in this situation? Do you pray along with the pastor? What if you don’t? Is that wrong?
Of course, the Lord will hear my prayers if I pray along with the pastor, but what about the pastor’s recorded prayer? Does the Lord hear it? Does He answer it? If the Lord does hear and answers the prayer, then my next question is this: Can I “pray without ceasing” by looping an audio recording of myself praying?
Is it sad that I have spent a significant amount of time pondering this issue?
I think it could easily be proven that recorded, looped prayers, are as effective as any other type or manner of prayer including self flagellation and animal sacrifice. An excellent experiment could be set up like 1 Kings 18. The most effective prayer method would be obvious and given a little more time you could even determine the second and third most effective method of prayer. Funding for such an experiment could be problematic, as various denominations would have an interest in not having their method of prayer ranked against other potentially more effective methods.
Good luck in finding the truth.