THIS IS HOW YOU SHOULD PRAY
Matt. 6:5-13
Series on specific prayers in the bible. We start out with the most familiar one-the Lord's prayer. The Our Father has become a standardized prayer that many of us learned from childhood. But have we ever taken the time to consider what we're actually saying here?
1) You should not pray like this (5-8).
Matt. 6:5-8, "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."
The gospel of Luke has a shorter version of this prayer. But the passage starts with one of the disciples, after hearing Jesus pray, asked him to teach them to pray. Listening to Jesus pray wasn't like what they were hearing from the religious leaders so they wanted to pray like Jesus.
Jesus identifies two classifications of people to not be like when we pray-hypocrites and pagans. And since Jesus used the word 'hypocrite' to describe the religious leaders in other passages it's most likely he's referring to them. He states their desire is to be seen by others. Jesus says that we shouldn't pray for the purpose of being seen.
In Jesus calling them hypocrites he's saying their motives were not pure. The reason they are praying like this is to be seen by others, not because their heart is in it. If no one could see them they would not be praying with such passion. Perhaps they prayed only when an audience was present-like they're a performer.
In fact, the Greek word Jesus uses here for hypocrite has the connotation of an actor-someone who portrays themselves as someone else. But more than that-hypocrite means someone who is arrogant and hard of heart, utterly devoid of sincerity and genuineness. Therefore, these religious leaders portray themselves as someone who is sincere and genuine in their prayers but in reality are the opposite.
"They have received their reward in full". This means that the blessing they might have otherwise received from God for their genuineness they will miss out on and receive the reward of accolades from the people. This is the attitude Jesus described in John 12:43 when he said "they loved praise from men more than praise from God". What was more important to these hypocrites was that they were seen and heard and praised by people. Therefore, God didn't honor their prayers with a blessing; they had already received all the blessing they were going to receive from their audience.
Jesus tells us to go into our closet and pray. Albert Barnes mentions in his commentary that in the second story of a Jewish home above the entrance there was a small room appropriated for secrecy and solitude where the pious Jew might offer his prayers, unseen by any but God. This is the place commonly mentioned in the New Testament as the upper room, or the place for secret prayer." This is interesting given the fact that Jesus held his last Supper in the upper room. So it makes sense that Jesus' longest recorded prayer was in this room of prayer (John 17).
Jesus wants us to be in the habit of developing a private, personal prayer life. Most of our time in communication with God should be spent one-on-one. I don't believe Jesus is telling us to never pray in public; he's simply telling us the importance of sincere, transparent prayer. Our prayers are going to be different in private than in public-we're going to be more transparent with God then we would be when we're around others but that doesn't mean when we pray publically we are to be any less real. When we pray, especially if it's in front of others, let's make sure our words are coming from our hearts and not simply our heads. If you don't believe it or feel it then don't say it.
Then Jesus highlights another type of person we don't want to pray like-pagans. He points out their babbling which can also be rendered as chattering. When we use the term chatterbox we know it to refer to someone who talks to much. We would understand a babbler to be someone who just goes on and on about something-sometimes using unintelligible words.
This also explains someone who is overly repetitious. In 1st Kings 18:16 and following you see the story where Elijah was challenging the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. There was an alter set up with an animal sacrifice and he challenged the prophets of Baal to see if their god would send down fire to consume the sacrifice. So they cried out, over and over, from morning until noon, "O Baal answer us!"
After that, Elijah teased them a little so they started shouting louder and kept it up until the evening. Yelling the same phrase all day thinking that would prompt their god to act; but it didn't work. Their vain repetitions got them nowhere. Then, Elijah offered up a simple prayer and God answered with fire and consumed the sacrifice.
Jesus is not necessarily condemning long prayers just those that go on and on without any real substance to them. The misunderstanding would be that if my prayer was short I must not be very equipped in my ability to come up with adequate things to say. Therefore, the more I say and the more elaborate my words are the better I appear. I come across as educated, wise and proficient at public speaking-a regular wordsmith.
While I may be an educated wordsmith to God it's all babble. Why? Similar to the first problem-it's all in my head, not my heart. I'm focused on the ability to formulate my words in correct grammatical fashion instead of being focused on praying with sincerity. I'm counting my words instead of making my words count. I'm focused on impressing my audience all the while forgetting God-my true audience-who's not impressed in the least.
Instead, my words should be no more than what is necessary-because God already knows what is on my heart. There's no need to ramble on or present my concerns in an elaborate way; just state my request with passion and humility-just be real.
"For your Father knows what you need before you ask him". Then why do we need to ask him if he already knows? So that we would be blessed. James 4:2 says that we have not because we ask not. If you want a raise you need to ask for it. As a parent, there were probably times when your child approached you to ask you for something and you knew what they wanted but you waited for them to ask for it. Why? Because there is value in them verbally asking.
Isn't it funny when your teenager comes up with this elaborate speech about why they should have what they want and they have all their arguments at the ready and all the while you were going to give it to them but you let them go on and on anyway. Your answer wouldn't have changed if they had simply asked directly with sincerity.
I think God is like that with us. He knows what we're going to ask and he has already decided what his answer will be but he waits until we come to him. And when we build up our request with persuasive words and flowery speech I can picture God shaking his head at our feeble attempts to win him over. Pray concisely and sincerely.
2) This, then, is how you should pray (9-13).
Matt. 6:9-13, “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."
Notice in verse nine Jesus doesn't say this is what you should pray-but how you should pray. Not that there's anything wrong with saying this prayer but the problem is that for many people this has turned into the very thing Jesus just warned us about-praying empty words. How many times do people just recite this prayer without ever really considering the words they're saying? Are they just words or do I really mean what I'm saying? [Our Father dialog]
We see the first part deals with addressing God-your name, your kingdom, your will. Then the focus switches to ourselves-give us, forgive us, lead us, deliver us. Such as our prayers should be-focusing on God first and ourselves last. We should first be acknowledging what God is about and wanting God's purposes accomplished. But so often our prayers go directly into what we want; often times without any acknowledgment of what God wants or showing gratitude for what God has done.
Notice the plurality of this prayer using 'our' and 'us'. We need to be personal in our prayers but also collective-praying in the spirit of unity for the family of believers. So, with a sense of love and commitment we pray these things for all the saints.
"Father". Jesus wants us to be personal with God-he wants us to realize that God desires to have an intimate relationship with us. I believe that's one of the things God wanted to get across when he sent Jesus. Jesus had intimate, personal relationships with people and it represented how the Father wants to be with us. Jesus was the fullness of God in the flesh.
Therefore, as we see all the ways in which Jesus interacted with people we understand that the Father is no different. Father puts things in perspective for us and when we approach the throne of God in prayer we can do so knowing that we are a child approaching his Dad-and that makes the connection all the more special.
"Hallowed be your name". Hallowed means holy, honored, sacred. We acknowledge that God, not us, is the holy one and therefore has all wisdom and power. We are declaring that as his children we will honor the name of God in all that we do because we are his representatives on earth. We remember, in humility, that God is in heaven and we are on earth. He is holy; we are not.
Solomon said in Ecc. 5:2, "Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few." Not that we have to be afraid of God when we pray but we need to remember that we are approaching a holy God. He wants us to be real before him like you see David doing in the psalms but respectful as well. He's not, 'the man upstairs' he's the heavenly Father whose name is holy.
"Your will be done". We pray that his will be done here like it is in heaven. In this we are identifying God as the king and we are desiring that his kingdom be established here. But we know that it starts with him reigning as king in our hearts. Therefore, in saying, 'your will be done', we are choosing to be obedient to the Father's will and to humbly submit in all he asks of us.
"Give us today our daily bread". Here we are asking that God supply our needs. We acknowledge that everything comes from God and we keep our requests humble. Not that we can't ask for things outside of our daily necessities but it's easy to get caught up in treating God like Santa Claus and Jesus wants us to be aware of that.
Daily bread. This implies that we are not to be worried about tomorrow's bread. Not that it's wrong to pray about something that is scheduled for next Friday but Jesus wants us to keep the focus on the here and now. Don't be consumed with how things are going to turn out next Friday-just concern yourself with your needs for today. We can so easily ruin today's joy and overlook today's blessings and opportunities by worrying about tomorrow.
It's a matter of trust. Can we keep it in today? When God gave the Israelites the bread from heaven, he told them to gather only enough for the day. If the Israelites took in more than the day's amount to save some for the next day, they woke up to rotten manna. God did this to establish trust. We so want God to give us enough for today and tomorrow and not that he never does that but he wants our trust to be in him as the provider.
Does this mean it's wrong to have a savings? Does this mean we should go to the store and buy only what we need for that day? No; it's wise to save and it's okay to get your groceries for the week. The point is do we trust God to provide? Are our prayers such that we are thankful for what we have? Are we humble in our prayers? Not that we can't pray big but that doesn't mean pray greedily. Are we content with having our daily bread or are we demanding that God give us the whole loaf? God has promised to supply our daily needs, not our daily wants.
"Forgive us our debts". We know from Luke's version that this means sins. But it's an interesting term to use. In Matt. 18 we have the parable of the unmerciful servant. Two servants owed a debt. One owed the king millions of dollars and had his huge debt cancelled.
Then he proceeded to run into a fellow servant who owed him a few dollars and chose not to be merciful. After the first man was found out and punished, Jesus finished by saying, "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart". So Jesus connected debts with sins.
In Luke 7 there's the story of Jesus at the Pharisee's home where the sinful woman came in and was weeping and drying Jesus' feet with her hair. The Pharisee didn't take to this very well and Jesus used an illustration of two people who owed a debt-one was a large sum the other much smaller. And both debts were cancelled. So he asked which one would love him more? The Pharisee answered correctly with the one who owed the greater debt. Then Jesus pointed to the woman's acts of love and finished by telling her, "your sins are forgiven".
When we sin we become indebted to God. And since our sins are more numerous than the sands of the shore we owe a debt we could never repay. So, we ask for mercy, grace and forgiveness. However, there's a second part to that. "As we have also forgiven". Easy to say but very difficult to carry out. But it's possible if we want to. That's the key. If we're a Christian we can't say, "But I can't forgive. I've tried but I just can't do it." God would not tell us to forgive and not give us the ability to carry it out.
First we must realize just how willing we really are to forgive. If we're honest we might say that part of us is willing but the majority of us isn't. We know it's what we should do but we are stubborn or reluctant to carry it out. But perhaps you are willing but you find the bitter feelings are right there whenever the person is mentioned or thought of. What do we do? Pray to see that person through the eyes of God. We only see the evil; we only see the offense and therefore we've identified the person by their crimes against us.
But if we want to forgive we need to see them as a creation of God, a person that God loves and wants to see become born again. He wants us to pray for that person. He wants us to channel our hatred to the one who was able to persuade the person to do horrible things-Satan. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of evil. Satan is our enemy-not people.
People do evil things and should pay the consequences for their poor choices but as far as damning them to hell-that's not our place; nor should it be our wish. It doesn't mean we should pretend that nothing ever happened; it doesn't mean that we need to rekindle the relationship but we are called to forgive; for our own benefit.
When we forgive we become free-free from continuing to carry the burden of bitterness and sorrow. Free from hatred and anger. We might not be able to altogether forget but when Satan tries to bring it back up again we can shut it down. Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. That's what we need to do with those horrible events of the past.
"And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one". James 1:13 states that God tempts no one to sin so it's not that we're asking God to not tempt us, we're praying as David did in Psalm 141:4, "Let my heart not be drawn to what is evil, to take part in wicked deeds with men who are evildoers; let me not eat of their delicacies."
We're asking God to divert us when we're entering into a tempting situation. We're asking God to protect us and alert us. I'm sure there have been times when you were going to go somewhere or do something that on the surface seemed okay but there was something unsettling about it; something telling you that it was in your best interest not to go along with it. [Story about stealing bottles].
When we ask God to lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil it means that we're expected to do two things: to not put ourselves into tempting situations and to not ignore God when he intervenes to lead us away from these situations. This is how we should pray.
When it comes to prayer we need to determine if we are doing it with sincerity or with an ulterior motive. Are we being real or fake? And when it comes to the Lord's prayer we need to ask ourselves, 'do I mean what I say'? Am I focused on God first? Do I want his will over mine? Am I mindful to include others in my prayers? Is this how we pray?
