Sometimes people equate Jesus’ teaching on “vain repetitions” or “babbling” (Matthew 6:7) with reading prayers or praying for the same things every day. But the word Jesus used means using words that are “meaningless” or “mechanically repeated.”
A mechanical prayer would be words repeated by rote, requiring no thought, no concentration, having no heart—words so familiar that our thoughts easily drift as we pray.
Many times, that might occur around the dinner table--where are prayers sound like heartless incantations.
That’s the opposite of the “effective, fervent prayer” that James speaks of (James 5:16).
Certainly we can pray for our loved ones every day without being vainly repetitious.
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