Christian prayer is NOT: 1. To give God information – Matt. 6:8. 2. Telling God what to do – Rom. 11:34. 3. Asking God to engineer a situation to the end we desire. 4. Something we do to please or appease God – Jn. 19:30. 5. A meritorious performance God expects of us; a duty or obligation of obedience. 6. An exercise to make us better, stronger, or more “spiritual.” 7. For therapeutic psychological adjustment, “good feelings.” 8. Self-instruction to gain a knowledge of God’s will. 9. Soliciting more “blessings” or “benefits” from God. 10. An evasion of the problems and anxieties of contemporary existence. 11. Superstitious, mystical or magical trance. 12. A spiritual “power-tool” to employ the “power of prayer.” 13. A discipline or devotional exercise that will lead us to godliness. 14. Demanding our rights before God. 15. Persistence and shameless haranguing until we get what we want. 16. A mechanical ritual or rote formulas. 17. An external religious action, pretentious and ostentatious – Matt. 6:5, 6. 18. Verbosity of meaningless repetition – Matt. 6:7. 19. A religious activity executed “on command” – litanies, rosaries, etc. 20. Prescribed by place, time or procedure.