Matthew 6:5-8

What are your favorite things to pray for? If we need to make important decisions for our families, work, or personal lives, we like to ask God for wisdom. If we are dealing with a difficult situation or need to balance many plates of responsibilities, we ask him for grace and strength. If we want to pray for another person, but we are not sure what they need or how to pray for them, we ask the Lord to bless them.

Wisdom. Strength. Grace. Understanding. Blessing. These words so often come from our lips when we bow our heads and close our eyes. We are comfortable with them. They sound like we know what we are talking about when we pray. But if we are honest, we feel like our prayers sometimes are a desperate search to find the right buzzwords from a grab bag of religious language ("Christianese"). Why do these buzzwords seem to dominate our prayer lives? Why do we struggle to know what to say when we pray?

I do not want to discourage anyone to pray for blessing, grace, strength, or wisdom. These are biblical things to pray for. What I hope to do is challenge our assumptions about prayer through Jesus' teaching. By challenging ourselves to think differently, I think we can build better habits in our prayer lives that show confidence in the God we pray to.

The Lord's Prayer comes to us in the context of the Sermon on the Mount. It is the longest and only recorded sermon of Jesus. The Gospels record many discussions Jesus had with individuals, the Jewish leaders, and his disciples. We do not have another lengthy sermon recorded other than this one in Matthew 5-7. Its theme is how Christ's disciples should live as citizens of his spiritual kingdom. When we choose to follow Jesus, we sign up for a new lifestyle, one that reflects the righteous standard of God's heavenly rule.

Jesus ended chapter 5 by teaching the righteous behavior that he expects from his people. This includes not harboring anger or lust in our hearts, turning the other cheek, and loving our enemies. In chapter 6, Christ warns us against the hypocrisy of righteous living. He knew that even sinful people can do righteous actions, but it does not make them righteous. We can act the part of the religious Christian without actually imbibing God's goodness in our hearts.

Prayer builds your closeness with and confidence in God.

Main Thought

This is what Jesus warns us against in prayer. He introduces his famous prayer by giving us two important principles for how we should not pray. He follows that up by giving us biblical principles for how we should talk to him. When we pray with these principles in mind, we build our closeness and confidence in God. As we study the Lord's Prayer for the next two Sundays, remember these principles and meditate on them. They will guide us in understanding how to talk to God biblically and confidently.

Prayer Builds Closeness with God

Jesus first warns us against praying like hypocrites. His critique of the hypocrites was that they loved to pray in prominent places where they would be seen. Such places would include the synagogue (a religious setting) or the street corner (a public setting). For modern Christians, this warning does not resonate (unless we equate the synagogue with a church worship service). On the other hand, the Jewish crowd Jesus spoke to knew exactly the cultural practices he was confronting.

As a religion, Judaism prides itself on its tangible demonstrations of spirituality. Habits of giving, praying, and fasting were all visible ways for Jewish people to show how much they honored the Lord. That is why Jesus mentions all three of these practices in chapter 6 and confronts the hypocrisy of doing them in order to get people's attention. In Jesus' day, Jews set aside certain times of the day for prayer. It was not uncommon for Jewish men to plan out their daily schedules so that they were outside on a busy street at the hour of prayer. When that hour hit, it was convenient for them to be in public so their neighbors could see just how spiritual they were. Standing in the synagogue to pray was another example of this attention-seeking behavior that Jewish men often practiced.

What behavior does Jesus condemn here? For sure, he is not forbidding public prayer for his people. Public prayer was a regular part of OT and NT worship. Jesus prayed in public on a few occasions, including at the feeding of the 5,000 (John 6:11). The problem with the hypocrites was not so much the place, but the motive of prayer. They prayed in public to be seen; they wanted their spirituality to gain maximum attention.

People who prayed this way sought public notoriety, and that is exactly what they got; in Jesus' words, "they have their reward." They got the attention they wanted, but nothing more. It does not mean God accepted their prayers, or that people even appreciated or acknowledged the genuineness of their faith. The only thing they have to show for their supposed spirituality is man's approval. The believer who prays this way is a hypocrite and he will receive the same result he seeks.

Jesus' answer to this kind of attention-getting prayer is private communion with God. He clearly expects his people to pray as an important part of their walk with God; he repeats "when you pray" three times in this passage. His prescribed method of prayer is going into a small storage room and closing the door. We do this to talk to our Father who is in secret. Rather than praying in public to receive public acclaim, the Lord exhorts us to pray in secret because even in secret, God makes his presence known.

Understand that Jesus is not setting a universal standard for places to pray. We have already seen public prayer occurs frequently in Scripture. He uses a drastic measure to prove a point. His drastic measure is to pray in the most private way possible, in a storage room with the door closed so no one can see you. The point is that prayer is not a way to seek the spotlight or get public recognition. At its heart, prayer is a personal, private matter between you and God.

With this contrast between public and private prayer, the key principle becomes clear: prayer is a time for closeness with God, not public recognition. The question we must ask ourselves is, "Do I ever pray for public recognition?" Christians in America probably don't struggle with praying on a busy street to gain attention. But we can struggle in other obscure ways when we pray in public, especially at church. Do we change our language and word choices in prayer to sound especially spiritual? Do we pray to get the verbal approval of fellow church members ("Amen" or "Yes")? Do we intentionally pray longer to give the appearance that we pray regularly?

This wrong motivation can manifest itself in many ways in our prayer lives. Our battle as Christians is to fight it and keep alive the desire for private communion with God. We can do this in part by building a personal habit of private prayer at home and growing in our fellowship with the Lord. At the same time, we should not hesitate to pray in public. In these settings, our attitude should not be one of seeking attention and approval, but of drawing close to our heavenly Father. We might even imagine ourselves behind a door in private, sweet communion with him.

That is why we pray, to foster our relationship with the Father. Before him, we need no approval or recognition. We only need a listening ear, which he always gives us. When you pray with this attitude, your Father will reward you openly. This does not necessarily mean he will answer your prayer in public, or even in this lifetime. It does mean your reward is guaranteed. You will get what you seek, certainly, you will have true fellowship with God. In the secret place of your heart, he knows your genuine desires and he will satisfy them.

Prayer Builds Confidence in God

If the Lord's first exhortation on prayer draws our focus to fellowship with him, then his second exhortation focuses our minds on faith. As with verse 5, verse 7 starts with Jesus condemning an unbiblical manner of prayer. In this case, he does not want his people praying like the Gentiles who use "vain repetitions." This Greek word, used only here in the NT, can mean, "to babble, to speak idly." A common practice in Gentile religions was for worshipers to repeat words and phrases in prayer until the god showed favor on them or gave in to their demands. They thought if they prayed for long periods or used the same words repeatedly, they might get their request. We see an example of this in the Baal worship of the OT (1 Kings 18:26-29). Many modern religions pray this way as well, including Catholicism, Islam, and Buddhism.

The problem with this practice is not the motive, but the means of prayer. Many Gentiles, and even Jews (Mark 12:40), assumed that lengthy prayers guaranteed God's favor. Like a child who repeats his request to his parents until he gets what he wants, they thought repetition was a sure way of being heard. Jesus tells his disciples to not behave this way. We are not children who need to repeat ourselves to get our Father's attention. On the contrary, he pays such careful attention to us that he knows our needs before we ask him.

Let me clarify that Jesus is not condemning repetition in prayer. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he made the same request multiple times to the Father (Matt 26:44). In his ministry, he told a parable with the express purpose of teaching his disciples to pray with perseverance (Luke 18:1). Jesus is also not condemning long-form prayer. Sometimes, we only have time for a brief prayer to express our trust in the Lord or to ask him for something. But we also need longer times set aside for prayer to grow our fellowship with the Lord. Jesus sometimes spent the whole night in prayer (Luke 6:12). So he is neither against repetition nor length in prayer.

Jesus is against prayer that assumes length and repetition can replace good content. We should not think that if we pray for the same thing in the same way again and again that we will get an answer. We cannot pressure God into answering us, and he is not going to break down and give in to our demands either. Instead, we should expect to be heard because we are his children. He hears us out of his fatherly love and desire to meet our needs. In his wisdom, he knows the things that we need already, and he stands ready to answer us.

Many Christians would assume they do not struggle with meaningless, repetitious prayers. They think that because they do not pray over rosary beads, or pray a dozen "Hail Marys," that this is not a problem for them. But consider your prayer life. When you pray for another believer, do you use the same words and phrases (bless them, help them, strengthen them)? In a corporate prayer time, are you prone to talking on and on instead of praying? When you sit down to eat a meal, do you find yourself praying through the same formula, asking God to bless the food and make it nutritious to your body?

This last one has been a problem I have noticed in my life. It is so easy to fall into a rut when I pray over my food. But as with any other prayer time, I should try to use different words, to speak from my heart and to show a little creativity. I hope the same process goes through your mind. When you pray for other people or your own needs, consider how you can be creative and different, so you get out of your prayer ruts. Listen to how other people pray and try to pattern their language in your own life. Look at Scripture to see how the psalmists, Paul, and even Jesus talked to God.

Our confidence in God as our Father is a critical component of this. When your children speak to you, I hope you would find it strange if they used the same three phrases for their whole lives. Parents expect their kids to grow in their vocabulary and to talk confidently from their hearts. As our heavenly Father, God expects no less. He wants us to speak transparently about our needs and fears as well as our hopes and dreams. He has the best things in store for us. Why would we always ask for general blessings when he could meet a specific need or overcome a challenge if we would just ask?

It's not that God needs to be made aware of these things either. He already knows them intimately. But like a good father, he waits for us to ask. I remember growing up that my parents always asked us for our Christmas list in November. This list would be a reference for not just my parents, but my aunts and uncles and grandparents as well. We did not always get what we wanted, but there was something special about opening your gift and receiving one of the things you asked for. However, my dad had a habit of buying us some of our Christmas gifts early and giving them to us weeks before the holiday came. Needless to say, my mom was not impressed. But he enjoyed giving us good things apart from holidays; I'm sure when I'm a father I will understand that feeling.

Like my dad (and many other dads), our heavenly Father delights in blessing us by surprise. He gives us so many things we never asked for; that is the bounty of his goodness to us. But there is something special when we ask for a specific request and he answers it. Not only do we benefit, but I think God as our Father is touched by that as well. He delights to give good things to his children (Matt 7:11). When he gives good things, we go back to ask him for more. We return to the place of blessing so we can enjoy communion with him again. The fact that my Father knows my needs should give me confidence that no matter what challenges face me, my Father can overcome them.

Next week we will look at the Lord's Prayer and what it teaches us about building our closeness and confidence in God. I trust this introduction to the Lord's Prayer has whet your appetite and gives you an appreciation for the special way we can approach God. He does not want grand public gestures or spiritual-sounding jargon. He wants his people to approach him as children in the privacy of their hearts, using language that reflects their loving, trusting relationship with him. Even when praying in public, we can show others that we don't expect their approval because we already have our Father's love. Instead of praying for attention from people or God, we pray with the desire to draw close to our Father in the confidence that he already knows what we need.