In this week's reading in Give Praise to God the topic of praying in a way that is filled with Scripture. The chapter even quotes Matthew Henry, "I would advise that the sacred dialect be most used, and made familiar to us and others in dealing about sacred things; that language Christian people are most accustomed to, most affected with, and will most readily agree to."
Is Henry's statement still true? Do Christians in the twenty-first century speak in a "sacred dialect"? I doubt that too many churches still speak in Scripture-esque ways. Our church society of "accidental hipster" (as I recently read) latte socializing Christians seldom use language found in Scripture, unless it is from a translation which uses YOLO or LOL. While I don't think that this lack of Scripture in our common speech is a benefit to the community, its lack is the status quo.
I do think that a benefit from using Scripture-esque language in our prayers, or our speech, is, as Henry points out, that it can make us familiar with it. Now is a era in need of this association.
The problem is this--most settings that Christians would implement this kind of prayer are void of Scripture-esque speech. If we were to suddenly use it, would it not just go over their heads? What kind of impact would it have if the congregation doesn't even understand what you are saying? On the other hand, they do need to be exposed to such speech. How do we effectively lead our brothers and sisters in Christ to a greater grasp of the Scripture in our prayers and speech without alienating them?
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