Summary: The Lord's Prayer is not a 'carved in stone' set of words that we must use, but is a good guide for how to talk to God, Who wants us to pour out of hearts to Him, but not to try to impress others by our long and fancy words and 'super-spirituality'.

Matthew 6 verses 5 – 13

PRAYING and THE LORD'S PRAYER

Jesus based his teachings, and advice, and especially his parables on things, events and situations,

that would be instantly recognisable and understandable

to the people He was addressing.

So, when He said ‘When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites;

do not be like them’,

then we can easily see with our mind’s eye,

the main targets Jesus would have had in mind:

the Pharisees and “outwardly religious” people,

not merely wearing, which was a right thing to do,

but flaunting, their ornate tallith prayer shawls

and leather tefillin on their foreheads and near their hearts.

They were noted, and notorious,

for praying long prayers,

with beautiful well-thought-out words, really poetic,

and out loud for all, not only God, to hear, and be impressed by,

but also all the 'sinners' and ordinary people

who just could not match their words, or length,

showing, at least to the Pharisees,

that they were 'sinners' and 2nd if not 3rd class in God's eyes.

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Jesus prayed often, and He wants us to pray often,

about everything, and everyone, and everyting, on our hearts.

He wants us to pray prayers of praise, prayers of confession,

prayers of thanksgiving, and prayers of intercession (that’s for others)

and prayers of supplication (that’s for ourselves).

He certainly does want us to be 'Prayer Warriors',

but He wants us to be sincere and humble as we do so

and not to show off to God or to others,

that we are ‘Super spiritual’,

and that somehow the QUANTITY of our prayers determines their QUALITY .

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In one his 'Lectures to my students'

Charles Haddon Spurgeon said:

'True prayer is not the noisy sound

that clamorous lips repeat,

but the deep silence of a soul

that clasps Jehovah's feet'.

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Apart from anything else, over-long detailed prayers

may result in another, sincere Christian being put off praying

because they think ‘I can’t pray, or least not like brother X or sister Y’.

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Of course, God wants to hear and receive our praise

and hear our admission of sin

and hear our pleas for others,

and while He wants us to persist in prayer,

Jesus seems to be suggesting in Matthew 6

that He gets no pleasure from vain repetition,

or when we just trott out the same words,

the same ‘Shopping list’ over and over,

and He must certainly experience displeasure

if when we pray

we deliberatly do so to impress others by our fancy and long words,

but providing we are sincere,

and asking for something in accordance with God's sovereign will,

there is nothing particularly wrong about praying long and loud.

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The Psalms are prayers:

Psalm 1 and Psalm 13 and Psalm 15 and Psalm 23 each have only 6 verses

and Psalm 117 has only 2,

so short and sweet is OK to God,

but on the other hand, Psalm 119 has 176 verses

showing us that God has nothing against long prayers,

providing they are sincere and based on faith in His Sovereign grace and mercy.

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With these thoughts in mind,

let us look at the words of the prayer that Jesus taught us,

which should be regarded as a model,

not a formula that has to be observed every time we pray;

it is a God-given guide for us to use

but not to stick rigidly to every time we pray.

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The Lord’s Prayer challenges us

Can we say ‘OUR’ Father is we do not love any other member of His family,

the church of Jesus Christ?

Can we say ‘Who art in heaven’ if we are not trying to lay up treasure there?

Can we say ‘Hallowed, or holy, is Thy name’ if we are not aiming at holiness,

sanctification, Christ-like-ness,

in our own daily lives?

Can we say ‘Thy kingdom come’ if we are not warning everyone,

or at least as many as we can,

about the consequences of that event happening soon?

Can we say ‘Thy will be done’ if we are not fully obedient to His word,

and pick-and-choose which parts of the Bible we believe and live by?

Can we say ‘On earth as it is in heaven’ if we are unwilling to serve Him

and be obedient to His commandments,

here and now?

Can we say ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ if we are greedy

and never satisfied with what we have,

which is a lot compared to millions of others around the world?

Can we say ‘Forgive us our sins, trespasses, or debts’

if we are not really repentant for what we have done?

Can we say ‘As we forgive those who have sinned against us’

if we are harbouring a grudge against even one person?

Can we say ‘Lead us not into temptation’ if we deliberately place ourselves

in its path by watching things or TV or reaing things in newspapers or magazines which we would not do if Jesus was sitting next to us?

Can we say ‘Deliver us from evil’ if we do not put on the whole armour of God which He makes available to us,

and prefer to trust in our own devices instead of His?

Can we say ‘Thine is the kingdom’ if we do not give God the loyalty

obedience that faithful subjects are supposed to?

Can we say ‘Thine is the power’ if we live in fear of what other people think of us?

Can we say ‘Thine is the glory’ if we mostly only think of our status and reputation?

Can we say ‘Forever and ever’ if all we think about are the things that concern us today?

Can we say ‘Amen’ if we are not content to lay ourselves and everything in God’s hands?

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So let us always pray according to the teaching and example of our Lord Jesus,

certainly never even giving the impression of showing off

or doing anything else that might be a stumbling block to a weaker brother or sister;

and I end with three important points:

firstly, Scripture says: do not be anxious about ANYTHING,

but pray about EVERYTHING,

because God is interested in, and wants to be involved in,

every area of our lives,

secondly, by all means bear in mind the words

'He will give us the desires of our hearts',

but include the words 'and let THY will be done'

no matter hwo much it is OUR will for our prayers to be answered

in the way WE would prefer,

and lastly we should pray or end our prayers with the words 'in Jesus' name'

or something like that,

because that's how He said we should present our praise,

prayers and supplications to the Father.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.