Simply to God

⁵ “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ⁶ But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.^[b] 7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

⁸ “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. ⁹ In this manner, therefore, pray: Matt 6

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus teaches His disciples how to prayer. In the following weeks, we will cover the section known as The Lord’s Prayer where Jesus instructs His followers to pray “In this manner.” Prior to showing His disciples how to pray, the Lord shows them how not to pray. That is what we will discuss this week.

Jesus tells us not to pray for the praise and approval of men. He cites the hypocrites that appear to being praying to God, but really are praying to the people listening to them, seeking their praise. Jesus says in essence, “If your prayer is for the praise of men, then whatever praise you get from them, is the blessing you will get.” Most of us do not pray like the hypocrites of those days, but we sometimes struggle with trying to sound “spiritual” or eloquent. The best hedge against this is to have your own private prayer life. Jesus tells us to go off by ourselves and pray. Jesus is not teaching against corporate prayer, we see the disciples pray together often in the book of Acts; however, our own private prayer should be the foundation of our prayer lives.  When you pray privately there is no temptation seek others approval. When you do pray in front of others, just remember that it is God that you are praying to and only God can answer your prayer.

The second thing that Jesus tells us is not to think God will answer our prayers for our “many words.” Sometimes we think we cannot just ask God “Please provide money for my mortgage.” We feel that we have to ask Him, and then restate it, and then tell Him that will we not miss a week of church this month. We feel that we have to bargain. This is a form of works. God answers prayers because He is good and provides for His children, not because of how verbose we were when we asked and not because we cut a deal with Him.

In summary, prayer is not a time for performance, either to impress the people around us or to impress our Heavenly Father. So when you pray, pray simply and simply pray to God.