{"id":40713,"date":"2026-06-23T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=40713"},"modified":"2026-06-22T12:24:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T19:24:40","slug":"26-0624","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/26-0624\/","title":{"rendered":"No Grades on Prayers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\">by Max Lucado<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-40715 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/260624_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/260624_1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/260624_1-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Jesus downplayed the importance of words in prayers. We tend to do the opposite\u2014the more words the better. We emphasize the appropriate prayer language, the latest prayer trend, the holiest prayer terminology. Against all this emphasis on syllables and rituals, Jesus says in Matthew 6:7, \u201cDon\u2019t ramble like heathens who talk a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no panel of angelic judges with numbered cards. \u201cWow, Lucado, that prayer was a ten. God will certainly hear you!\u201d or \u201cOh, Lucado, you scored a two this morning. Go home and practice.\u201d Prayers aren\u2019t graded according to style. If prayer depends on how I pray, I\u2019m sunk. But if the power of prayer depends on the One who hears the prayer, then I have hope.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-40565\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1-unnamed-7.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"188\" height=\"300\" \/>\u00a0 \u00a0Read more\u00a0<a title=\"Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer\" href=\"https:\/\/maxlucado.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=bed511e434184985961d50fcb&amp;id=c9668dc127&amp;e=0716428f80\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/maxlucado.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u%3Dbed511e434184985961d50fcb%26id%3Dc9668dc127%26e%3D0716428f80&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1780708342826000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3_JhZBG08V_1_JUTXCvTKQ\"><em>Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus downplayed the importance of words in prayers. We tend to do the opposite\u2014the more words the better. We emphasize the appropriate prayer language, the latest prayer trend, the holiest prayer terminology. Against all this emphasis on syllables and rituals, Jesus says in Matthew 6:7, \u201cDon\u2019t ramble like heathens who talk a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no panel of angelic judges with numbered cards. \u201cWow, Lucado, that prayer was a ten. God will certainly hear you!\u201d or \u201cOh, Lucado, you scored a two this morning. Go home and practice.\u201d Prayers aren\u2019t graded according to style. If prayer depends on how I pray, I\u2019m sunk. But if the power of prayer depends on the One who hears the prayer, then I have hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-upwords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40713"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40716,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40713\/revisions\/40716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}