And when you pray (3)

And when you pray

And when you pray…

, “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. “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. Pray then like this:“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

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. “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. Pray then like this:

“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. Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

The history of God’s people is decorated with men and women of prayer. Book after book has been writing about men and women of God who knew how to fall before God at the altar of prayer until their prayers were answered. There are countless stories told about how some of these prayer veterans even gave their lives calling out to the Lord. I believe that there is no greater accolade given to any believer than to call him or her a prayer warrior.

Don’t you want to be known as a prayer warrior?

Don’t you want to have the boldness of Moses, who represented God’s people before the Lord? Don’t you want the faith of Elijah, who called down the very fire of God to correct and consume the false prophets of Baal? Don’t you desire the passion of Ezra as he held forth the Word of God in repentance, prayer and fasting? Or don’t you want the practical brokenness of Nehemiah before God, asking Him to enable him to rebuild the wall.

All of these prayer warriors understood the place, the promise and the purpose of prayer in their lives.

Jesus was a man of prayer! Think about that for a moment. He was the Son of God. He could do all things and could do anything He needed to in His life. But, He chose to follow the instructions of His Father, to introduce the way of fellowship with His Father and to immerse Himself in the insight and the impact of His Father.

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” ().

Jesus was a man of prayer; He dedicate His life on the earth to prayer and to service to His Father. He personified the deep commitment to prayer that we should all modeled. Jesus shows us that fellowship with the Father is entering into, engaging with, and fully experiencing being eternally supported by prayer.

Prayer is the means by which we can know God and His will for our lives. Prayer is our means of communication with God. Prayer is also the way we have spiritual power.

Let us pray…

This passage shows that, just as it was in the case of helping the poor, so there was a tendency for people to use their prayers as a means of impressing others with their piety. But prayer is to be communion with God, not a means of increasing one’s reputation. To pray with a view to impress people is wrongheaded. Jesus calls on praying people to consider what they are doing. They should concentrate on the matter in hand and forget the plaudits of people. Prayer is the means by which we can know God and His will for our lives.

, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew has a good deal to say about prayer. There is a change from the singular to the plural, when we get to our passage, 5a“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to…” Jesus is not so much uttering a prophecy as He is giving a direction. “The words must not be like the hypocrites…” signifies those who profess pious action but are really pathetic amateurs. Their piety is for those who are looking but not a true purity of heart. They have their eye and what people might think instead of what God thinks. By their actions they show that their concern and affection is not towards the grace of God. But toward the people around them who have not authority to grant them salvation or grade their behavior.

5b‘… For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Now, standing was a normal posture for prayer, though when the worshiper wished to adopt an especially lowly position they might prostrate themselves, as Jesus did in Gethsemane. People might pray kneeling or sitting. Clearly the physical posture is unimportant as along as you are kneeing and bowing, and lying prostrate before God in your spiritual posture. As we have seen before, the synagogue was the center of community life as well as the place of worship. To pray standing in a synagogue was to take up a very public posture. The same must be said about praying on street corners. The junction of two streets would be a very public place and to pray there, in a place not especially given over to religious exercises and with many people about to observe what was going on, made a statement. The Jews were known to offered prayers at prescribed times like in , “Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.”

Or like in , ‘When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God.’

And it was not beyond the ingenuity of some to order their affairs so that they were in a public place at the time of prayer and so that they were “compelled” to pray where they would be seen. Why did some to the people choose to prayer in public spaces?

5c, …that they may be seen by others… This phrase introduces the very purpose of their activity: this public exercise was not aimed at addressing God, but it actually sought to achieve visibility before men. This is clearly seen in the last words of this verse, 5d, ‘… Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.’

If we do things to see the reward of men, we will always forfeit the reward of God.

These words about reward are repeated exactly from verse 2. , “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”

Like those demonstrative givers of alms, those who pray merely to put on a show have been “paid in full” for their efforts. Here Jesus is not condemning public prayer or praying in a public place; it is praying in such a way as to maximize its effect on other people that its reverence towards God that he condemns.

6 In verse 6 Matthew gives us a contrast, by starting this verse off with the word ‘But’. Here he uses this word in the emphatic sense and to contrast the preceding statement. The true followers of Jesus do not pray simply in that demonstrative fashion; they pray that they can know God and His will for our lives. 6a‘But when you pray…” which means that this is the way they must always pray. Jesus is not, forbidding prayer in public, but Jesus is proclaiming that when you pray, pray for a deeper knowledge of God and self. When we are seeking God through prayer we are seeking to further our intimate relationship with God as Jesus tells us to, ‘… go into your room and shut the door…’

, So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the LORD. Then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm.”

, ‘Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by.’

Rather, here Jesus is giving direction for our own prayer life and indicating that they are to undertaken it with a single eye on God, not with a side-glance at people who could be impressed. Go into your room (the word means an inner room) prescribes a private place for such prayer. Shutting the door of the room secures it from observation from the street, and shutting the door secures it from the consideration of those around you, and shutting the door secures it from examination by others. Every precaution is to be taken that the prayer should be unobserved. ‘… and pray to your Father who is in secret.’

The secret of religion is religion in secret”. Here the word pray is a command; prayer is not simply desirable but necessary. In verse 4 the giving of alms is said to be done also in secret and the Father is said to see that giving in secret, also it say here that your Father see you in secret and rewards. The secret place will exclude all others but not God; He is there, in the secret place. The essential nature of God is hidden from those he created. ‘… And our Father who sees in secret will reward you.’

Prayer is our means of communication with God.

, “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.” Jesus has significant teaching on the importance communicating with the Father and having conciseness in prayer. His followers are not to babble, not to heap up empty words. Many words from our mouths do not impress God, but the manner and the sincere witness of our hearts impress God. To pray at length was regarded by the Gentiles as the way to make sure that the deity appreciated the prayer, and there is no reason for thinking that this error was confined to the Gentiles. The Jews were guilty of this as well,

, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” The Talmud speaks of pious men who prayed for nine hours a day! Jesus here points out that babbling is not the way to the heart of God. The Gentiles thought that prayer was only effective if it was long.

, And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention. They agree that God hears and answers, but hold that he does so in proportion to their wordiness.

8. There is a fallacy in the position of the Gentiles, which is obvious as soon as Matthew utters the words. ‘Do not be like them’ which means, of course, “Do not pray as they do,” “Do not make the error they make.” Jesus justifies this by going on later in this book to refer to the knowledge the Father has of his children. ‘For your Father knows what you need by before you ask him.’ Before we offer any prayer, before we make any request, and before we cried out to the Father God, he knows exactly what our need is.

We pray, not to inform God on matters of which he is ignorant, but we pray to worship God. Jesus is not, forbidding long prayers; he himself on occasion could pray all night () and on one occasion he taught his followers “that they should always pray and not grow weary” (). Nor does he forbid repetition, for in Gethsemane he repeated his prayer. , Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I go over there and pray."37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.38 Then he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me." 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done."43 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, "Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Jesus is saying that prayer changes people, prayer does not change God’s mind. Jesus is teaching that a prayer based on the length will not persuade; but a prayer based of love for Him and submission to His will and His authority grants us relief.

In this Gospel we have already found that the kingdom of heaven has come near in the person of Jesus.

, In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” , From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

As Matthew records it, the giving of the prayer is quite spontaneous, but in Luke it comes in response to a question of the disciples. Jesus had been praying, and the disciples asked him to teach them to pray as John the Baptist had taught his followers. But here the giving of the prayer comes as guide to how to pray, seen in the words, ‘and when you pray.’

Jesus now gives his disciples a model prayer of what a real prayer should be here in verses 9-13. We call it the Lord’s Prayer, but it is actually the disciples’ prayer. The true “ Lord’s Prayer” is in .

This is the model prayer, for that is what it is. It is not a prayer to be memorized and repeated mechanically, though it is not wrong to repeat these words thoughtfully in a service. Jesus did not say, “This is what you should pray,” but Jesus said, “and when you pray, pray then like this.” The prayer is a brief prayer; Jesus has warned us earlier against vain repetitions and many words.

There are six petitions, following an initial address to God the Father. The first three petitions concern God’s honor, God’s kingdom, and God’s will; the last three-concern human needs. This places God’s concerns first, just as with the Ten Commandments, the first tables deals with the duties we owe to God and the second table deals with the duties we own our neighbors. In the day we now live these two priorities are often switched. We begin with human needs and unfortunately often we never even get around to God honor, kingdom and will at all.

9b, Our Father in heaven, Matthew gives the specific location of our Lord and King, he speaks of His dwelling place which is heaven. , Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven, and said “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart.’

, ‘But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, “ Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?’

Then Matthew takes us directly to his first petition, ‘… hallowed be your name.’ This first petition is that the name of God be honored. God’s name (actually names) stands for God himself, as he is revealed in nature and Scripture. So, to honor the name is to honor God, to hold him high and lifted up, to give him the greatest and grandest praise, and to show reverence, awe, and exalt him above all others.

What is the “name” of God that we should honor. There are many names for God. He is Elohim, the creator of the heavens and the earth (). He is El Elyon, the Most High God (). He is Jehovah, “ I Am Who I Am”, the name revealed to Moses at the burning bush (). He is Jehvoah Jireh, the God who provides (). He Adonai, The Lord. In this prayer, Jesus introduces God as Our Father in heaven.

What an unbelievable privilege for us to call God our Father. Before the coming of Jesus, this was an unknown name in most prayers. Pagans did not pray this way. Even in the Old Testament the word father appears in reference to God only fourteen times, and never once does any individual Israelite address God directly as “my Father.” It would have been considered much too intimate. In fact, the Jews of Jesus’ say did no even like to use the name “God.” They spoke of “ the Most High” or merely “ Lord” instead.

All of this was completely overturned by Jesus, Jesus always referred to God as his Father, and in the Sermon on the Mount he authorizes his followers to do likewise. What an unbelievable privilege to uses the words ‘Abba father, which means our daddy. Yet, Jesus uses it over eleven times

This prayer is not so much a petition that God will do some great act that will show everyone who and what he is, but a prayer that bringing people to a proper attitude toward him. It expresses an aspiration that He who is holy will be seen to be holy and treated throughout His creation as holy.

The God we pray to must never be taken for granted or taken lightly. Jesus continues , Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. God’s Kingdom as to do with God’s rule and reign, which involves God’s sovereign ordering of all things at all times. But in another sense it concerns God’s directions for our lives and the lives of His people. Here Jesus prayers for His messianic kingdom and rule to come. When it speaks of … Your will be done, here the disciples ask that God may equip them to live a life of growing obedience to God in all things. This is a declared desire and commitment to live, live as the Scripture dictates. Looking forward to the day where the whole universe willing becomes subject to God’s will, even was we as believers do now. The prayer looks for the perfect accomplishment of what God wills, in the deeds of those he has created as well as in what he does himself. This points not to a passive acquiescence but to a positive active identification of the believer with the working out of God’s divine purpose; if we pray this way we must live this way. Jesus reminds us here that in heaven God’s will is being perfectly done now, for there is nothing in heaven to hinder it, and the prayer looks for a similar state of affairs here on earth.

, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

My brothers and sisters this should be our desire, and we should always be careful to examine the attitudes of our heart and our day-by-day actions in accordance with it.

D.A. Carson says, “These first three petitions, though they focus on God’s name, God kingdom and God’s will, are nevertheless prayers that he might act in such a way that his people will hallow his name, submit to his reign and do his will. It is therefore impossible to pray this prayer in sincerity without humbly committing oneself to such a course.

11, Give us this day our daily bread, Halfway thorough this prayer, as we come to the fourth petition, we turn to prayer for our personal needs: (1) life’s necessities, (2) forgiveness of sins, and (3) deliverance from temptation and the devil. It should be obvious that prayer for “daily bread” is not for mere bread alone, still less the bread of the Lord’s Supper, which is what Jerome suggested. It is a prayer for real food and whatever else we need to sustain ourselves physically. This phrase ‘daily bread’ is seen only in two versions of this prayer in Matthew and Luke.

This word ‘epiousios’ appeared on many women’s shopping list as an obvious reminder to buy a necessary food item. So, here the meaning of this fourth petition is asking the Lord for the necessities of the day for life and strength. We need pray today for today and we need also to thank God for what He has provided. , Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

The prayer prayed in the morning seeks bread for the day, while prayed at night it seeks bread for the coming day. We are to seek God for our supply of our immediate needs, not those of the indefinite future. Jesus says that we should do no more than ask for food sufficient for the day on the day.

12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. It is not only provision for daily living that we seek we also seek forgiveness as well. We are not only creatures we are sinful creatures. We need forgiveness from our many sins, which God provides for on the basis of the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. It is why Jesus came, to seek and save the lost. Now there is a connector here that cannot be ignored, lets look at it again. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, now we do not earn our forgiveness by forgiving others. But since was have been forgiven by God that forgiveness must have a profound change upon our heart and it expresses it self by our new found ability to forgive other. Unforgiveness recognizes that sin puts people in the peril with God and that only He can cancel out the offense and pardon it.

The offense is here seen as a debt (in we have “sins”), which recognizes that we owe to God our full obedience. When we do not pay it we are debtors to God, and only he can remit the debt. The prayer for forgiveness is qualified by as we also have forgiven our debtors. This must surely be taken as an aspiration rather than a limitation, or none of us would be forgiven; our forgivenesses are so imperfect.

We must always remember that the power to believe in true forgiveness and the ability to forgive are both given by God! The point here is not so much that forgiving is a prior condition of being forgiven, but that forgiveness can never be a one-way process. This is not something to be taken lightly, for we cannot help but notice that this is the only one of the six petitions in this mighty and marvelous prayer that is picked up again and again and amplified by Jesus in, 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. -

15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. -

This should really bring home the importance— even more, the necessity— of forgiving other.

Lastly, we must deal with last petition, , And lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” We should pray for deliverance first, that we might be kept from the trials or temptation and second, that we might be delivered from the devil, the evil one. The big question here is the meaning of the word temptation. The word has the basic meaning “test,” and, when used of Satan’s testing of people with a view to their failing in the test, it comes to mean “temptation.” This expression seems to point to testing in general rather than one specific test. God tempts no one. But the worshiper knows their own weakness and in this prayer seeks to be kept far from anything that may bring them to sin. It is argued that in the first century this verse more likely spoke of the evil rather than a general reference to evil.

In summary, we live in a real world where our good and evil actions have direct consequences and indirect consequences upon us and those around us. God’s desire is that for all of our sakes we would obey Him that it might be well with us , Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever.”

Instead, what happens is that we choose our own way, and then we blame God for not doing anything about it. Such is the heart of sinful man. But Jesus came to change men’s hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit, and He does this for those who will turn from evil and call on Him to save them from their sin and its consequences. , “ Therefore, if anyone in in Christ,he is a new creation. The old has passed away and behold, the new has come.” God does prevent and restrain some acts of evil. This world would be MUCH WORSE were God not restraining evil. At the same time, God has given us the ability to choose good and evil, and when we choose evil, He allows us, and those around us, to suffer the consequences of evil. Rather than blaming God and questioning God on why He does not prevent all evil, we should be about the business of proclaiming the cure for evil and its consequences—Jesus Christ!