The Church As… A Praying People

FCF: We often approach God with self-centered prayers that seek His hand rather than His face.

English Standard Version Chapter 6

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.

So Jesus is preaching this incredible sermon and teaching the crowds what it means to live as a citizen kingdom in this world. And he shifts to the topic of prayer which comes off the heels of loving your enemies and the needy, and right before he teaches them on God as greatest treasure and provider.

And it is here in this passage, where Jesus helps us understand what prayer is by first telling us what it isn’t. He says, “do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Don’t be like them…

The first thing to notice here is that prayer was and is a common practice among the nations of the world. In 2018, Pew Research conducted a study that shows half of the world’s population prays daily. That’s over 3 billion people engaged in prayer daily.