Don't pray like this

We are going to start with some don’ts of prayer

Matthew 6:5 NASB95

5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

Don’t be like people who pray to put on a show

When they pray, they do so to impress

they want people to be viewed as deep in God

Jesus calls them hypocrites, because they give an external appearance of spirituality, but internally there is nothing there

the modern day equivalent for the synagogue would be at church, and the street corner has now become social media

and there are some people who when you see them pray at church or on social media are very impressive

they have all of the mannerisms down and they pray so boldly, and seemingly with such power

but in reality, they are only trying to impress you, and some try to impress you enough to get access to your money

Jesus said don’t be like them

don’t take your cue from them

don’t say, “now, that’s prayer!”

There is definitely nothing wrong with praying publicly, but Jesus said that if your goal is to impress people when you pray . . . . then impressing people will be the only result of your prayer

if you wanted to show out . . . congratulations, you showed out, but your prayer did not register in heaven

Matthew 6:6 NASB95

6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Most of your prayers should be done privately

You don’t want to be a person who prays in public, but God never hears from you in private

if we just use three times a day, by the time I am called to pray publicly, there should be around 21 prayers that I have already prayed privately . . . just me and God

even at the house, if you have family prayer, by the time the family prays together, each member of that family should have already been before the Lord in prayer by themselves

I’m talking to children too, just praying at church, or just praying when mom and dad comes to pray with you is not enough. Sometimes it just needs to be you and God

you should be able to say, it’s not my mother, nor my father, but its me O Lord standing in the need of prayer

We all need to learn to pray private prayers.

And Jesus teaches that God rewards private prayers

Commercial: When I struggle to pray publicly, it’s either one or two things.

my private prayer life isn’t going too well

I allow myself to feel the pressure of trying to impress

another don’t

Matthew 6:7 NASB95

7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.

Jesus also said don’t use meaningless repetition like the Gentiles do

in other words, people who don’t know God (Gentile reference) think that because they are repeating spiritual sounding words, that it will make a difference in the power of their prayer

but sounding spiritual does not mean that you are spiritual

we have tendency to repeat religious sounding phrases when we pray, and not even think about what they mean

For example I’ve heard football teams use the The Lord’s Prayer in a meaningless and repetitious way.

I’m not mad at football players for saying it, but do you think players are thinking about the meaning and depth of those words right before a football game?

a better prayer before a football team would be, “Lord help us remember our plays and assignments”

lord protect us from injury

Lord confuse the enemy

Lord give us favor with the referees

but often like the football team, we settle for meaningless repetition and wonder why our prayers have no power

don’t just say words just to say them, be intentional, be meaningful, be present when you pray