Matthew 6 Prayer

How You Should Pray - Heart attitude

We learned last week:

Jesus didn’t want his disciples to give with the same heart as the Hypocrites did

He wanted their giving to be given unto the Lord to please the Lord, not to please man.

Just as Jesus expected his disciples to give and give properly, he also expected them to pray and pray for the right reasons. From the right heart attitude!

Matthew 6:5–8 ESV

5 “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. 6 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. 7 “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. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

There were two main places where a Jew in Jesus’ day might pray in a hypocritical manner. They might pray at the synagogue at the time of public prayer, or on the street at the appointed times of prayer (9 a.m., noon, and 3 p.m.).

“Prayer was not normally practiced at the street corners, but…one who strictly observed the afternoon hour of prayer could deliberately time his movements to bring him to the most public place at the appropriate time.” (France)

The temptation here is that a Hypocrite would use these pre-arranged times of prayer to go out into the public arena, whether a street corner or the synagogue and pray publicly. It’s no sin to pray publicly but look at how Jesus describes the heart attitude of this hypocrite.

So that they may be seen by others! This anonymous hypocrite is seeking to impress others. He’s not praying to an audience of one! He’s praying to the masses, seeking to impress those masses with empty phrases!

On the contrary, go into a private setting. The closet where there is only one person listening and one person to talk to. The God of the universe!

The specific greek word here for “Room” was used for a storeroom where treasures were kept. This reminds us that there are treasures waiting for us in our prayer closet! These treasures should always be directed to God and not towards man! There in lies the correction brought by our savior!

Don’t pray in public to make one’s self look good. Pray humbly in private and you don’t need to go on and on using a bunch of deep theological meanings to impress God. He knows our hearts. In fact in verse 8 Jesus tells us that God in heaven knows what we need even before we ask for it.

Ecclesiastes 5:2 ESV

2 Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.

“Christians’ prayers are measured by weight, and not by length. Many of the most prevailing prayers have been as short as they were strong.” (Spurgeon)

The NIV translates the phrase vain repetitions as “keep on babbling.” That may be an accurate sense of the ancient Greek word battalogeo, which may be a word that sounds like “babbling” and has the sense of “blah-blah-blah.”

“Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his misery; to humble his heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, to raise his soul from earth to heaven, and to put him in mind that THERE is his Father, his country, and inheritance.” (Clarke)

In the following verses, Jesus will begin a memorable explanation of the right way to pray with the words, “In this manner, therefore pray.” Jesus then gave His disciples a model for prayer, prayer marked by close relationship, reverence, submission, trust, and dependence.

How We Should Pray - The Will of Our Hearts Desire

Matthew 6:8–13 ESV

8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

FATHER: The right kind of prayer comes to God as a Father in heaven. It rightly recognizes whom we pray to, coming with a privileged title that demonstrates a privileged relationship. It was very unusual for the Jews of that day to call God “Father” because it was considered too intimate.

It is true that God is the mighty sovereign of the universe who created, governs, and will judge all things — but He is also to us a Father.

HOLY IS YOUR NAME: The right kind of prayer has a passion for God’s glory and agenda. His name, kingdom and will have the top priority.

Everyone wants to guard their own name and reputation, but we must resist the tendency to protect and promote ourselves first and instead put God’s name, kingdom and will first.

Your Will: Jesus wanted us to pray with the desire that the will of God would be done on earth as it is in heaven. In heaven there is no disobedience and no obstacles to God’s will; on earth there is disobedience and at least apparent obstacles to His will. The citizens of Jesus’ kingdom will want to see His will done as freely on earth as it is in heaven.

“He that taught us this prayer used it himself in the most unrestricted sense. When the bloody sweat stood on his face, and all the fear and trembling of a man in anguish were upon him, he did not dispute the decree of the Father, but bowed his head and cried. ‘Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.’” (Spurgeon)

God is more than able to do His will without our prayer or cooperation; yet He invites the participation of our prayers, our heart, and our actions in seeing His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Daily Bread, Forgiveness and Deliverance: The right kind of prayer will freely bring its own needs to God. This will include needs for daily provision, forgiveness, and strength in the face of temptation.

Prayer for actual bread, actual needs. God cares about the little things. The focus here is that our prayer for God to meet our daily needs is to redirect our hearts. We don’t need to focus on striving to provide for ourselves because we will typically attempt to lay up treasures on earth. Get more than we really need and we are tempted to look to ourselves as the provider. God wants us to remember that HE is our provider. We should pray to him asking him to give us exactly what we need for that day. Bread? Yes bread, but so much more than that. Ask him to provide everything that we truly need! God does care about everyday things and we should pray about them.

“The prayer is for our needs, not our greeds. It is for one day at a time, reflecting the precarious lifestyle of many first-century workers who were paid one day at a time and for whom a few days’ illness could spell tragedy.” (Carson)

Disciples, aware of their weakness should pray to be spared exposure to situations in which they are most vulnerable.”

If we truly pray, lead us not into temptation, it will be lived out in several ways. It will mean:

Never boast in your own strength.

Never desire trials.

Never go into temptation.

Never lead others into temptation.

Many translations will end this prayer with the phrase “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” as well known as this ending is, it is more than likely added by later transcriptionists. Whether you believe it has been added or not, I don’t see anything wrong in its content. I mainly wanted to point this out due to the fact that many of you may be looking at your bibles and then at the screen and wondering why it is missing from the English Standard Version. The theologians who translated the ESV attempted to only translate the holy scriptures as written in manuscripts of a date closer and assumedly more accurate than the versions that contain the well known ending.

That being said, the kingdom, power and glory certainly do belong to our God, forever! Whether it’s actually in the original writing from the Holy Spirit or not! AMEN!

Matthew 6:14–15 ESV

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

“Once our eyes have been opened to see the enormity of our offence against God, the injuries which others have done to us appear by comparison extremely trifling. If, on the other hand, we have an exaggerated view of the offences of others, it proves that we have minimized our own.” (Stott, cited in Carson)

Ultimately God is concerned about our hearts. Our hearts toward him as we give. Our hearts toward him as we pray. In reference to these last two verses, He is concerned about our hearts as we either show forgiveness towards others or we don’t.

As we ponder the depth of our own sin both past present and future and realize that the God of the universe has forgiven all of it, how in the world could we decide that an offense against us is of a higher importance than an offense against God himself!

It is an imperative, forgiveness! Just as Jesus expects his disciples to give the right way and with the right heart attitude, and pray correctly as well. Imbedded in His prayer model is the expectation that we, as disciples of Christ, should be professional forgivers. The problem is, too many times we have convinced ourselves that we have nothing that we need to ask for forgiveness and elevated our status to the point that we don’t feel realize the spiritual devastation brought on by our arrogant un-forgiveness!

Where is your heart tonight? Is it living for you own “rightness”? Your own set of rules? Your own status as your own personal godship? Or is your heart like that of the tax collector in Luke 18?

Luke 18:9–14 ESV

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

This world’s mantra is geared to push you and encourage you to exalt yourself. That is not to be our mantra!

Psalm 148:13–14 ESV

13 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven. 14 He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his saints, for the people of Israel who are near to him. Praise the Lord!