Why do Christians Pray in Public?

In this post I probably shouldn't even have to address this issue, because Christians should know that there individual life belongs to Father Yahweh, and they should follow his word with all their might. In many churches I have attended here in New England there is a trend by clergy to lead people in prayer before every event. This I have seen in both the churches and in public places before they eat. In other words when they have an audience.

All should agree despite denominational differences that being a Christian means that we are to emulate the life of the Messiah in our daily walk. When he (the Messiah) walked the earth he both talked about and set examples on how to pray and when to pray. Which brings me to the point I am going to make and that is there are no examples in the bible at all of which the Messiah led people in prayer or prayed publicly.
Any time the Messiah prayed he went off by himself and had one on one private communication with the Father.
In fact, the bible tells us not to make our prayers public as it is our personal communication with God.

Another way of looking at this is if I were to ask you to bow your head in prayer, then I started praying then who is praying? Are you? Of course not, only the one that is praying, is the one that is actually praying.

Not only is public praying unbiblical but most times public praying is ineffective by taking your attention away from Father Yahweh. For example, I have attended Wednesday night prayer meetings locally only to find out that it was mostly a distraction. Let me explain, most prayer meetings start out with a discussion on who they are going to pray for. This creates a list of many different topics to address which is fine and dandy, however, after they make their list they start at one end of the room then the first person prays for all the items on the list, then the second person prays for anything he or she missed, and so on. If you happen to be at the end of the line when others have prayed all the items on the list, you find yourself praying that the sun comes up tomorrow and thanking the Lord for air. Although the sun and air are important, I can really pray better than this on my own. There is however, one church in Rhode Island that I know of that makes a prayer list, then everyone breaks off and prays on their own. So there is at least one church that encourages individual prayer.

I have looked at every verse in my concordance to see what the bible says about prayer. I will not list every single verse, as most have a concordance in the back of their bible and can look them up themselves, however, I do want to share a couple of verses that I feel sums it up well.

Matthew 6:5-6

And when thou prayest thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut they door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

I believe some may look at this post and claim that praying in private is figurative and not literal. The question I have for anyone that may believe this way is, if it's figurative then what are we to do with the above verses? Feel free to leave an explanation in the comments box if you have an idea.

It is my belief many that attend the modern Jewish Christian churches (Judeo-Christian) do not pray. Instead they sit idly by while someone else does the praying. They are totally dependent on the Minister or a Layman praying for them. I also believe that they see their ministers talking to the Father all the time and because of this they believe that they are one step below God. For those who believe this, I tell you today that we all come to God on the same level, and no person is greater than another.
I can promise you there is no place in the bible that says anyone falls under the umbrella of their ministers faith and prayers to get them into the Fathers Kingdom.

The most important thing I want others to take away from this is when others are praying, you are not praying!

One may ask when is a good time to pray?

The answer is quite simple, the bible tells you in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to pray without ceasing, so any time is a good time to talk to your creator, his hours are 24/7.

So next time you pray, pray by yourself, don't bow your head and look into the dirt, but rather lift your eyes to your Father which is in Heaven who has sacrificed all for you, and give him thanks for everything!