Michael Haykin has an excellent post on the history of rejecting pre written prayers over at Historia Ecclesiastica. As one who thinks paryer should be spiritual and not formulaic and predictable AND one who loves to write and read and pray pre-written prayers I found this to be a fun read.
I say:
- Pray as the Spirit leads - spontaneous and free
- But also write prayers as the Spirit leads and share them with others for their prayer, encouragment, and to build up someone else.
- Read written prayers from history - then pray fired up, by the Spirit, in the now :)