Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verses 1 and 2.

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.

To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools.

For they do not know that they are doing evil.

Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God.

For God is in heaven, and you are on earth.

Therefore let your words be few.

Wow, those two verses definitely make me not want to say much, even to lead into prayer.

And even as I pray, this is a good reminder to all of us that when we come before God, we need to

remember who he is.

I need to pause. I say this often with my kids when we're

about to pray before a meal, and that prayer time can feel so routine and almost mundane if we're

not careful. And so I'm constantly saying, hey, let's pause and think about who we're talking to right

now.

And that's a good reminder for us right now and all the time.

When we think about prayer, when we think about prayer individually, when we think about

gathering together with others for prayer and for worship, on a Sunday, for example, in church, guard your steps when you go to the House of God.

And obviously, House of God is talking about the temple here in the Old Testament, a way that's different from church buildings today.

But all the more reason when we read 1 1 Corinthians 6 to see our bodies described as the

temple of the Holy Spirit of 1 Corinthians 3 to describe the church, the assembly of God's people

as the temple of God. So let's pause and just remember when we pray who we're talking to. And in that, to remember that silence is a good

...