I can't get to the blog to copy the link, because I am blocked for some reason, BUT it was everyday mommy that made me want to write something.

God speaks today, but NEVER in contradiction to the Bible. 

In the Bible God tells us that God spoke in an audible voice, in a voice that was audible to only one person in a group of people, in inaudible sentences in the mind that were just as clear as audible voices, in impressions, in visions, in dreams, in circumstances, in nature, through angels, and various other ways.  (from Surprised by the Voice of God by Jack Deere) 

Since He never changes, and Scripture is how we learn who God is and how we are to act, react, interact with Him etc.  I feel it is safe to say that we can expect the same from God today.  I don’t necessarily think we will ALL hear from God in the same way all the time, but I wouldn’t want to put God in a box and say He would NEVER speak to me in a dream, just because He hasn’t.

Whether all of the above is a PART of prayer or not, I suppose it would depend on your definition.  I tend to think of prayer as communication, which is a two way activity in every other use of the word.
 

I agree with Scripture, that we should not utter vain repetitions… besides being useless to our hearts and minds, without our heart being involved, more importantly it is not pleasing to God…  I was reading in Hosea 6:6 “I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifices, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”  He WANTS us to know Him intimately… and that doesn’t happen with only me talking to Him.  He doesn’t want mindless “canned” prayers, He doesn’t want ritual without thought, he wants our hearts and souls and minds taken up with Him…  I think the key word is “vain” – not “repetition”.  I’ll be honest.  I have vainly repeated the Lord’s prayer many a time in my life.  I have vainly recited Scripture, or mindlessly read it out loud in a Bible Study.

And then there are the other times that I have REPEATED, yet by no means vainly… whether it is a sentence, a word, the Lord’s Prayer, a verse, His name, a line of a song, a whole song sung over and over and over… as long as it isn’t ”vain”, it is prayer.  As long as it comes from the heart, it is a pleasing fragrance to Him.