Worship call 0727 Private prayers

6:1–18 Religion and its rewards. The general summary in v 1 is followed by three parallel illustrations of the wrong and the right way to go about religious observance. Almsgiving, prayer and fasting were central elements in Jewish religion, and all are assumed to be valid for Jesus’ disciples. The issue is not whether you should do them, but how and why. And it is focused in the question of reward; the reward for ostentatious religion is the human recognition for which it is seeking; but that is all (they have received their reward in full).[1]

Matthew 6:5–8 (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. 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. 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. 8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Much to say here on the subject of prayer.

33.178 προσεύχομαι; f: to speak to or to make requests of God—‘to pray, to speak to God, to ask God for, prayer.’[2]

General Thomas Jackson served under General Robert E. Lee in the war between the states. The General having served as a Major in the Mexican American war was a teacher at the Virginia Military Institute when the call to arms was sounded when Virginia entered into the war.

The General became known for his battle tactics to include his coolness in battle which earned him the name, “Stonewall”

Along being known for his skill in warfare, Stonewall Jackson was known to be a man of prayer. A prayer warrior. Sometimes his men would hear the General out in the woods having what sounded like a conversation. When someone asked, “who was the General talking to,” another replied that he was talking with God.

And though the General could be observed praying outwardly, his life testified that he did not do it hypocritically.

After being wounded at Chancellorsville, and was laying in his hospital bed when asked by the orderly who was attending him about 1 Thessalonians 5:17, to prayer consistently and Jackson replied

When we take our meals…there is the grace. When I take a drink of water, I always pause, as my palate receives the refreshment, to lift up my heart to God in thanks and prayer for the water of life. Whenever I drop a letter into the box at the post office, I send a petition along with it for God’s blessing upon its mission and upon its Mission and upon the person to whom it is sent. When I break the seal of a letter just received, I stop to pray to God that He may prepare me for its contents and make it a message of good. When I go to my classroom and await the arrangement of the cadets in their places, that is my time to intercede with God for them. And so of every other familiar act of the day.”

In some languages there are a number of different terms used for prayer depending upon the nature of the content, for example, requests for material blessing, pleas for spiritual help, intercession for others, thanksgiving, and praise. There may also be important distinctions on the basis of urgency and need. The most generic expression for prayer may simply be ‘to speak to God.’ It is normally best to avoid an expression which means primarily ‘to recite.’[3]

Point is your praying to a person. A person is one who has

Intellect

Sensibility

Determination of Choice

A.W.Tozer writes in the Pursuit of God

God is a person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.[4]

And as we speak to persons we speak to the person of the Sovereignty of the universe.

In a relationship there is two-way communication.

IN this age God primarily speaks through his written word. The completed cannon of scripture.

If you want to hear God speak to you, read his word.

If you want God to speak out loud to you, read his word out loud

In turn, our conversations back to the Lord is in prayer.

IN speaking with God, it is called prayer in order that we may not forget that our conversation is with the Sovereignty of the universe.

Prayer of the well-motivated believer is not contrived or in repetition.

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.

How ridiculous would it be for us to speak to our fathers at the dinner table the way we speak to God.

A person that desires a relationship with you even Moreso than any of us could want a relationship with him.

How do I know.

Why is it that God has gone to the trouble of opening up every path that we could know him and love him and walk with him and talk with him?

Why did Christ have to die for us.

Why are we indwelt with the spirit?

Why grace?

Why mercy?

Why the canon of scripture which is the mind of Christ?

Why doesn’t God who hates sin not drop a lightning bolt down on us when we sin?

It can’t be because God needs us. God is self-sustaining.

It must be that God wants us and wants that relationship to himself for his own divine pleasure.

My prayers to him is as I speak to anyone else but never forgetting that I am speaking with the sovereignty of the universe.

Was it funny when we read of the patriarchs that at one point Abraham could talk to the lord in barter with him over Sodom? And then at another time fall prostrate in the presence of the Lord.

Same with Moses. At one point be arguing with the Lord about his decision to wipe out the Israelites and at another time on his face before the Lord.

What is interesting with both of these cases is this.

The divine privilege of being included in God’s planning.

Paul says, When you pray…

He takes it for granted, or a foregone conclusion that one prays. Matthew Henry points out that a living human being breaths air, and it is a natural process of the human being to do so. It should be just as natural for a Christian to pray. A baby comes out of the womb is breathing, so it is with one who is born again, praying.

The very character of the Motivated Believer is Praying to the Lord.

We are ambassadors for Christ who represents the King to a foreign land. At the same time and throughout the course of our assignment we stay connected with the king through reading correspondence from our King and communicating back with our prayers.

That said prayer’s purpose is to be connected with our king. And while public prayer is not condemned and is heard by God when the heart is genuinely in tune with God, it is the prayer closet, intimacy with God that keeps our motives in check.

How often and where do you pray?

Only in Church among other believers?

Do you have a prayer closet, a private setting with God?

There are rewards connected to Almsgiving, Prayer and fasting in the spiritual life of the Jewish people as it is for the Christian.

Prayer is of the spirit

Fasting connected to the Body

and giving is of one’s estate

giving all to the Lord. Investing all that one is.

there is reward from the king to whom the heart is directed to him.

The believer must be kept one’s own motives in check. Do we do what we do for the accolades and praise of men. This is what the flesh desires. And so when such is done with these motives in tail, then we have already received our reward as we assemble with other pious men and woman who congratulate us and seek to be like us.

But it is the one who is in his prayer closet out of sight of the crowd who lifts his heart to the Lord with no other motive but his and her love for the Lord who is the one who is rewarded with the attention of our sovereign Lord.

While the crowd of religious people are shouting look at me come and be with me, the lord turns his attention away to the lowly man and woman in a private session in a out of a way place.

Lets long to be with the lord in such a place.

[1]France, R. T. (1994). Matthew. In D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham (Eds.), New Bible commentary: 21st century edition (4th ed., pp. 912–913). Inter-Varsity Press. [2]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 408). United Bible Societies. [3]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains(electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 408). United Bible Societies. [4]Tozer, A. W. (2006). The Pursuit of God(pp. 13–14). WingSpread.

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