Jesus taught us to pray in private rather than show off. When he prayed in public his motive was that they may believe (John 11:41-42). Our public prayers will never really be totally devoid of wrong motives, so we will be exposed to prayers that may be manipulative, gossipy, a show, long and tedious, trite, irrelevant, repetitive or even self-righteous. Some churches use repetition by first announcing a prayer and then praying the exact same thoughts to God. Others avoid this tedious repetition by dispensing with a “let's pray about” discussion. Prayer is very important and churches ought to be houses of prayer, but Jesus taught us not to pray like hypocrites where our motive is to be seen by others (Matthew 6:5-8). Public prayer is difficult for imperfect humans and so we must overlook each other’s faults.
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