Chapter Six of Matthew is in the middle of the Lord's sermon on the mount. Before this point we have seen the multitudes bring him loved ones with all types of sickness and needs; we have heard him give us the Beatitudes and we called the salt and light of the earth and had Christ call on us to be that good example (be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect v48). We know that there is no way out side of being in Christ can we even come close to being perfect as our father, it takes us being in the perfect one and when we are not in line with the Heavenly Father then are we far from 5.48.
Now in Chapter Six Jesus tells us not to do alms or works just to receive praise from men, However, we should do them in reverence to our Heavenly Father, not letting any one know what we have done and allow God to receive the praise. In verse Five Christ says "when thou prayest" here we find a don't list then the to do list for our prayer.
Here we find that our Lord said Do NOT be a hypocrite in our prayer:
V5-Do NOT Love to pray in front of People.
-it is a heart issue
-if our heart is longing for the praise of men by our large prayers and big vocab then we are not seeking to serve him when we claim too.
-if we "pray" prayers like these and seek not God's praise but man's then how can we truly claim to be his when we are not.
-many "Christians" today seek to show man and long for man's favor instead of looking totally to Christ as Lord.
So what do we do when we pray?
We want to look at three things here in the text about how we should pray.
1. We shall pray in secret (v6).
- Jesus said go into our closet, too many prayer closets are not used as they should be today, to do this we have to humble ourselves.
-Christ said we have to shut the door, we have to get alone with the only one who can answer our prayers, we can not be afraid, yes if we are not in practice of having tat alone time with the Lord and mediator between us and the father it can be scary BUT a healthy dose of reverence is what we need in those times.
2. We shall pray not vainly (v7).
- God says here don't just keep repeating things over and over and over, HE knows what you need that He will take care of.
-Use the KISS method Keep It Simply Simple do babel.
-I remember when my children were babies, they mumbled and you had no clue what they needed unless they were crying, but when they learned to speak then could they tell me what they needed, then I could teach them what they needed to know.
-we are the same way when we are first born of the spirit we don't know what we need nor how to verbalize it, BUT, as we grow in Christ Jesus we now can speak and be raised up the way we should go for His Glory.
3. We should pray to our Father (v9)
-If you have asked Christ to be your personal Lord and Savior then God is your father.
-With God as our Heavenly Father we should desire to have a healthy relationship with Him.
-As a father myself I long for and cherish those alone times with my children where they can ask me anything and visa versa, a true bond is made in those times.
- As our Heavenly Father God longs for those times just as we, and with that we should Pray to our Father.
How long has it been sense your motives have been truly right in prayer?
sure you pray a grocery list to Christ ( I want this this this and this....thank you amen). Do you really think God honors those prayers?
Or does He honor those where they get deep and personal with Him?
