When You Pray Pt. 1

Introduction

Kid praying silently story.

In this unit on the sermon on the mount, Jesus takes time on regular religious practices: giving, prayer, and fasting. In the previous section Jesus spoke on giving. We focused in on how giving can be a cause for applause, and how the hypocrites took an opportunity for generosity and turned it into greed.

Jesus’s teaching on prayer in this sermon includes what is known as “the Lord’s Prayer” which we will look at next week.

I’ve titled this sermon, “When you pray” which is what Jesus frames this section with. Vv. 5 and 7 both begin with the phrase, “And when you pray. . .”

Many people around the world pray.

Muslims are probably most well known for their prayer habits. They pray 5 times a day and must face Mecca when they pray. According to Hadith, Muhammad reduced the number of prayers from 50 to 5 per day. In a story of bartering similar to the one about Abraham and Sodom in Genesis.

Ultimately Allah reduced it to five. When I came to Moses again, he said, ‘What have you done?’ I said, ‘Allah has made it five only.’ He repeated the same advice but I said that I surrendered (to God’s Final Order)'” God’s Apostle was addressed by Allah, “I have decreed My Obligation and have reduced the burden on My servants, and I shall reward a single good deed as if it were ten good deeds.

Taken from : Chapter 1 - What Is Salah and Why Do We Pray? - Masjid ar-Rahmah | Mosque of Mercy

For Muslims, prayer is about duty. “Showing submission to Allah.”

Prayer for the first century Jew was likewise very duty driven. The would pray the Shema in the morning and evening. A prayer before and after each meal. These mealtime prayers were prescribed based one what one was eating. “Rabbis debated the amount of food necessary to require a mealtime prayer. The consensus was that if the food amounted to the size of an olive, the prayer was mandatory”

Charles L. Quarles, Sermon on the Mount: Restoring Christ’s Message to the Modern Church (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2011), 178.

Charles Quarles in his commentary goes on to explain:

Sermon On The Mount: Restoring Christ's Message to the Modern Church Prayer (Matt 6:5–15)

Particular prayers were also prescribed for such occasions as approaching the site of a miracle, seeing a shooting star, experiencing an earthquake, a clap of thunder, or a flash of lightning. A particular prayer was prescribed when one saw mountains, hills, seas, rivers, and deserts. One prayer was prescribed for the reception of good news, another for bad news. Particular prayers were prescribed for building a home or the purchase of new cooking vessels. Two different prayers were to be offered when one entered a town, then another two when one left the town.

They were also expected to pray the 18 benedictions three times a day, which were fairly lengthy.

Dependence

Matthew 6:5–6 ESV

“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.

Notice some things about this passage.

Jesus says “when you pray.” Not “if.” This also seems to do away with set times of prayer which are mechanically recited.

Again we see the negative example: the hypocrite who does all the right things but is not in it for the right reasons. When the prescribed time for prayer came along, one was supposed to stop wherever he was and pray. Jesus notes the coincidence that these hypocrites just so happened to find themselves on the corner of the busiest streets when the time of the prayer came along. This was because they prayed to get people’s attention rather than God’s.

Jesus says they've got their reward: they got the attention they wanted.

Prayer is not about a display or duty, but dependence (vv. 5-6)

But prayer is not all about getting people’s attention. Nor is it necessarily about getting God’s attention, as will be seen in the next passage. Rather, prayer is about a deep dependence on God. This is why Jesus commands to pray in secret. This is because Jesus, as he has always been in this sermon, is after the heart, the motive behind the activity, not just the activity itself. Prayer in its nature shows piety and dependence upon God, but can easily be twisted to become a show. Jesus is not so much about the location of prayer as he is the motivation of prayer.

Do you want to see how much you depend on God? How much do you pray? The first-century Jew had all these various things that would remind them to pray. For them it was a duty—one many were diligent at. And now we have the open door to a seat at the table with God through the cross. And how often do we take advantage of that? Maybe it would be better to get to that table like a dog than a human.

Personal anecdote?

When Luther happened to be at the table, his dog looked for a morsel from his master, and watched with open mouth and motionless eyes; he (Martin Luther) said, 'Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish or hope."

Luther's Tabletalk

If only we could have such a fixation on God, that we could turn all of our thought life into a continuous prayer. And if we lived lives of prayer, think about what an impact that would have on everything else: our outlook on life, our interaction with others, our daily duties—all bathed in prayer. All pointing to and

Jesus does not prohibit all public prayer. You can see that the model prayer in v. 9-13 uses the phrase “our Father”—intended to be prayed in a group.

“Father” is the word Jesus uses in v. 6 as well. It seems to approach God with the right mixture of familiarity and reverence. The word “Father” shows us the fountain of prayer. The motivation of prayer does not spring from duty. It does not spring from getting people’s attention. Rather it is from our relationship with God.

Relationship

Matthew 6:7–8 ESV

“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.

Not only is prayer not about getting people’s attention, it’s also not fighting for God’s attention. You see the pagan gods were not all-powerful. You had to fight for his attention. They had a series of magical phrases they would utter over and over again to do just that. These phrases would be meaningless but supposedly held power—like “abracadabra.”

What exactly is the point of doing prayer in this way? Well, it’s an attempt at supernatural recognition. A way to curry favor with the divine by using a hidden tongue. It’s all about getting what one wants. Jesus says, “They think they will be heard. . .” because of this babbling.

But that’s not what prayer is about. And that’s Jesus’s point.

Prayer is about relationship not manipulation (vv. 7-8)

I mean think about this for a moment. Jesus goes on to say, “Your Father already knows. . .” If God already knows everything, then why pray? Prayer is not about sharing new info with God. It’s not about convincing him to do something for you. Prayer is about your personal relationship with him.

Prayer, as we will see from the model prayer, is not about exerting our wills over God. Rather it is about submitting to God’s will.

So what brings you to your knees to pray? Is it only life’s great needs? Is it to convince God to do something for you?

R. Kent Hughes says, “Prayer is surrender--surrender to the will of God and cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boathook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.” (From Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome)

Do you want to have this relationship with God?