“GENUINE PRAYER AND FASTING”
Matthew 6:5-18
INTRODUCTION: Last week we started the series on the places where Jesus said, “I tell you the truth”. We started out by looking at the first four verses of Matt. 6 where Jesus shows us our giving need not be done with fanfare, with the intention to get praise from others, but rather with the motive of blessing others and bringing glory to God. Today we’ll look at the other acts of righteousness in this passage-praying and fasting.
1) Do not pray to be heard by others (5-6). Jesus isn’t condemning public prayer here. Jesus himself prayed in the company of others. He prayed around his disciples and he prayed in the presence of a crowd before he raised Lazarus from the dead. The people Jesus highlights are not in the wrong because they prayed in public, they were in the wrong because their motive was not right-to be seen by men.
“I tell you the truth, they have their reward in full." Jesus reiterates what he said earlier about giving with an impure motive. Their prayers were just a formality; they weren’t coming from their heart. Therefore, the reward they received would only be the praise from men who recognize them for their ability to pray rather than God’s reward which would be the fulfillment of their prayers.
Vs. 6-praying in secret. No doubt these hypocrites prayed one way in public and another way in private (if they prayed in private at all). But that’s just it-Jesus wants us to have a private prayer life. It wouldn’t be good if the only time I prayed was in the company of others.
We need that time of prayer when no one else is around; where there are no distractions. A quiet place where we can be completely open and transparent. That’s typically not going to happen in a public prayer setting. We’re going to be more careful and guarded; and understandably so.
But just because our prayers will be more personal when we’re in private, the manner and the wording shouldn’t really change when we are in public. It’s not good if we’re using big words and poeticism in our public prayers but our private prayers are simple and down to earth. If this is the case then it’s probably because in public we are praying for the audience around us but in private we’re praying for an audience of one.
We need to be genuine in our prayers; whether public or private. Genuine prayer involves the heart more so than the tongue. “A family was sitting around the dinner table one evening waiting for dad to get in from work. He finally came in after his unusually long, rough day. He sat down at the table and offered thanks for the food. As soon as he finished his prayer, he began to complain and grumble about how awful things were going at work. The boss was a jerk and the workers were lazy. Then his wife brought in the food. Since he had come in so late, the food that was supposed to be cold was warm and the food that was supposed to be hot was cold. The main dish was overcooked and dried out. The bread was hard. And he made sure and pointed out what was wrong with everything. After hearing all the complaints, his youngest daughter asked him a question. “Daddy, do you think God heard you when you prayed a few minutes ago?” “Well, yes sweetheart. Of course He did.” Then she asked, “Do you think He heard everything you said after that?” “Why, yes sweetheart. God hears everything.” Finally, she asked, “Which one do you think He believed?”” If our prayers are genuine, the Lord will honor that. We will be rewarded and refreshed. We will be blessed in hearing wisdom and encouragement from his Spirit.
2) Don’t babble on (7-8). The KJV “Vain repetition”, NASB “meaningless repetition”. Do not let your prayers drag on and on; just for the purpose of talking. We might think the longer we pray the better we’re heard. Again, Jesus isn’t saying all long prayers are babble. His own prayer in John 17 is long. The difference is in the substance of the prayer. Some long prayers are good because they are solid, heartfelt prayers but the long prayer that is redundant and shallow is not.
This also means we shouldn’t keep uttering the same old repetitive prayers. Vain repetitions are empty, meaningless words. We might think the repetitiousness of our prayers adds to the seriousness and genuineness of our prayers but they don’t. The pagans thought that being repetitious would incite their gods to action. In 1st Kings 18 there was an incident where the prophets of Baal kept chanting for hours upon hours the same phrase over and over trying to incite him to act. Then Elijah prayed one, short prayer and God answered.
In the Jewish culture they were required to recite two formalized prayers known as the Shema and Shemoneh ‘esreh (the Eighteen-because it consisted of 18 prayers). The Shema, which consisted of three sections of scripture, was recited twice a day; the Shemoneh ‘esreh-three times a day. For many, I’m sure these prayers became just meaningless repetition. There are other religions that practice chanting or repetitious prayers like Hinduism, Islam. Catholicism has a form of this with praying the rosary. How many times have you said these prayers in mindless repetition? Just saying it because that’s what you were supposed to do and so you would receive the promises of Mary for saying them.
Vs. 8-we don’t pray to inform God of anything. If God already knows what we need then why do we have to pray? Because he wants us to. He wants to have communion with us. His desire is to have a personal relationship with us. He knows that prayer is a vital part of that. It’s all for us; he doesn’t benefit from our prayer life-we do. Through having that communication link we’re the ones who draw closer to him; we’re the ones who become stronger in the faith.
Prayer is also a method by which God chooses to bless us. It’s not that God only blesses us when we ask but he does want us to go to him with our requests. Matt. 7:7-8. Ask, seek and knock. He wants us to put in some effort. He could just give us everything that’s on our hearts but that would be too easy. How important is it to us? What are we willing to do; how far are we willing to go? Not that God enjoys dangling the carrot in front of our nose; it’s not about that. It’s about relying on him. It’s about trusting in his timing. It’s about trusting in his wisdom in giving us only what is best for us (not giving us everything we ask for). So, let our prayers be genuine-not filled with mindless repetition and ongoing babble or a bunch of intellectualism and fancy spiritual words but rather let them be filled with love, reverence, humility and awe.
3) This is how you should pray (9-15). Jesus didn’t say this is what you should pray, but how you should pray. Not that it’s wrong to pray this prayer but it’s meant to be a model for our prayers. Let’s go through and break it down.
Heavenly Father/hallowed be your name. Our prayers should first be in recognition of who God is. We need to understand that we are not presenting our wish list to a spiritual Santa Claus; we are addressing a holy God whom we need to respect.
Your kingdom come. We should pray that more and more people would come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior so his kingdom would grow. We should be focused on how we can be a witness for Jesus.
Next we see we need to pray for God’s will to be done. Even though we are presenting our requests to God, we need to pray for his will in the matter.
Then we need to not be greedy in our prayers. We ask God to provide for our daily necessities. Not that it’s wrong to pray for more than that but we can get carried away and have the spirit of materialism behind our requests. When we ask God for something outside of our daily needs let it be done in contentment.
We ask for forgiveness. [Trespasses, debts=sins. There were different words used to represent sin in the NT.] Our prayers need to contain the recognition that we have sinned and need to be forgiven, restored and replenished. Then, in recognition of his great love, grace and mercy toward us, we have the same regarding our fellow man. This isn’t easy but it’s necessary. We won’t be free if we’re not forgiving. We won’t understand and appreciate God’s forgiveness toward us if we also don’t forgive others. When we forgive, especially when it’s someone who did us a great deal of harm, we will grasp the depth of forgiveness God has shown to those who have sinned against him. Forgiveness doesn’t pretend the offense never happened; it doesn’t mean there’s an absence of consequence. When God forgave my sins there was still a price to pay; thankfully Jesus paid that price for me because it was a debt I could never repay.
Then we ask that God protect us from being in situations that tempt us and that he would rescue us from the evil one. Satan wants to afflict us at every turn so we pray for God to keep him at bay. God may allow us to face temptation but he’s not the one doing the tempting. And since we know we can not rescue ourselves we call upon God’s power to get us through temptation and out of spiritually harmful situations.
Vs. 14-15-The Our Father prayer has various elements contained in it but we see Jesus drawing extra attention to the part about us being forgiving. Maybe because this is the hardest part to be genuine about. C.S. Lewis, “We all think forgiveness is a wonderful concept until we are called upon to do it.” Perhaps forgiving others is the litmus test to determine how genuine we are as Christians.
4) Don’t make it obvious you are fasting (16-18). Fasting is the act of abstaining from something (usually food) for the purpose of honoring God. In Jewish life if someone was going about in sackcloth and ashes it signified that they were in mourning. It came to be where the religious leaders would do this to reveal that they were fasting. The story is told of an eastern ascetic holy man who covered himself with ashes as a sign of humility and regularly sat on a prominent street corner of his city. When tourists asked permission to take his picture, he would rearrange his ashes to give the best image of destitution.
“I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” God rewards a fast done in the right spirit. A fast just to show how religious we are is not a blessed fast. As someone once said, “Even self-denial can be a self-gratifying experience when we do it for the sake of being noticed by others”. However, a fast done to get close to God, a fast done in humility and recognition of God’s grace and blessing is a fast that will be honored by God.
Vs. 17-When we are fasting we should look and act normal. We shouldn’t announce to people that we’re fasting. When we do we are trying to impress others, “look how religious I am”. With that said, there are times where you might not be able to keep your fast a secret. Someone might invite you to lunch. You politely refuse. They ask why. You can’t lie so you might have to reveal why. It’s okay; your motive wasn’t to announce it. And if the person is being persistent it could very well be God’s will that you reveal you’re fasting. Why? This can be an excellent chance to bring glory to God; especially if you’re talking to a non-believer. But even if it’s a Christian you might motivate him or her to fast. Let’s face it-fasting isn’t a common topic-even in Christian circles. So to promote it, under the right motive, can cause others to be blessed along with yourself.
“Put oil on your head”. The contrast is while the hypocrites looked at fasting as a somber event Jesus wants us to look at it as a joyous event. Putting oil on your head symbolized a joyous occasion. Even though fasting isn’t easy; it is meant to bring joy. And it will bring joy when it’s done with the right motive and for the right purpose.
The purpose of fasting is not to show others how righteous we are; it’s not to show God how holy we are. It’s for the purpose of drawing near to God. It’s for the purpose of showing God that he is more important than even food. It’s to show our faith and trust that he will sustain and provide for our needs. Fasting is not meant for us to show; it’s meant for us to grow.
Isaiah 58:1-9. We can’t fast one day; we can’t be holy one day and unholy the rest. This is insincere fasting; this is fasting without recognizing the true purpose of it. Its value is not in the act as much as it is in the desire behind the act.
CONCLUSION: Jesus wants our acts of righteousness to be done with the right motive. If we want to be recognized or applauded by others then our hearts are not in the right place. If we’re trying to show people how religious or spiritual we are then it shows how unspiritual we are. And we’re shortchanging ourselves because Jesus said we have received our reward in full; which is a pretty lackluster reward. But, when we do what we do with humility and for the purpose of pleasing God and ministering into the lives of others then we will be honored and blessed with greater and lasting rewards from God.
