Jesus Teaches on Prayer

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.  For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.  Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret...And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” –Matthew 6:6-8 (ESV).

Prayer is one of the most intimate practices of the Christian’s spiritual life.  Think how amazing prayer is:  We can approach our Heavenly Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God, sustainer and keeper of the Universe, and He knows and hears us individually.  To think of this relationship with the Heavenly Father through prayer is more than awesome. Jesus gave us some very good instruction on how not to pray and how to pray.  First, don’t be hypocritical when you pray.  He is speaking mainly here of public prayer, if we are called upon to pray in our church assemblies or in the presence of others.  Don’t be like the hypocrites—the mask-wearers—who pray to be heard of men and are noted for their pious-seeming and loftily-worded prayers.  The rewards of such praying are that they are heard and adulated for their beautiful words. Be sincere when you pray, even in public.

True praying is in secret, with only the one who prays and God hearing.  Then we can empty our deepest longings, express our fears and shortcomings, confess our sins, seek God’s face, exalt in His presence, and ask Him whatever we need to talk to Him about without fear of ridicule or reprisal from others.  Like child to Father, our secret-place prayers are on a personal and intimate level. Jesus gave a marvelous promise with this kind of praying:  “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Jesus’ next admonition about our praying can apply equally to our public and our private prayers:  “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Do not be like them.”  Sometimes we grow into lazy habits in our prayers. Prayers become routine and repetitive.  Jesus is warning us against such unthoughtful praying and prayers that repeat  the same patterns of speech, much like a broken record.  Remember that God knows what we have need of even before we ask Him.  Yet when we are sincere and earnest in our praying, and from our heart we truly seek God, He hears and answers.  We can be assured of that.  Scholarly commentary says about prayer, God always answers.  Sometimes He says “yes,” to our pleas, sometimes “no” and sometimes “wait awhile.”  A little later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches this about prayer:  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.”  (Matthew 7:7-8).  Prayer is an important daily discipline and privilege of the Christian.  Alfred Lord Tennyson, great English poet, wrote:  “More things are wrought through prayer than this world dreams of.” 

[Note:  These devotionals examined the Lord’s Prayer, day-by-day from Matthew 6:9-14 on the dates of June 17-22, seven days.  Because these verses have already been used in this series , tomorrow we will go to Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness and fasting, which come immediately after what we call the Lord’s Prayer.]