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What Jesus taught about prayer has been misconstrued and distorted, reduced by the Church to a mere ritual of superficiality.
He was referring to the religious leaders in His day, mostly Pharisees and Sadducees. They did things to be seen of men, putting on a show of piety. Jesus called them pretenders:
Go into almost any Roman Catholic Church or Church of England today and you can see the same farcical religious display. It’s abhorrent to God, and completely at variance with the point of prayer. Jesus explained what prayer SHOULD be:
Of course, there are times for public prayer, but the thrust of Jesus’ words was that prayer is not meant to be a performance before others, but a sincere outpouring to our Creator. Sincerity is vital! It should never descend into empty ritual:
But the liturgy adopted in many organised churches does just what Jesus spoke against! Men ‘pray’ the same rehearsed prayers, time and again. It’s not spontaneous, often not sincere, and usually just performing before people.
The purpose of prayer is to help you develop an attitude and habit of dependent trust in God. It’s not what you say that is as important as why you say it, and what it achieves in your spirit. Billions of people know of Jesus’ words that follow, but very few know what He was driving at.
The literal Greek could be rendered:
Or: Thus, then, you be praying... (Concordant Literal NT). Or:
Jesus was NOT saying, “when you pray, use these words...” He meant, “pray in this manner.” It’s the way you pray, not what you say, that is most important. That involves your attitude, reasons, motivation and purpose. What are you trying to achieve? What does God mean you to achieve?
What Jesus then says explains what He means you to achieve in your prayer life. I have summarised this here in ten points, corresponding to the aspects mentioned in Matthew 6:9-14:
1. Our
Father................ Relationship Let’s take a closer look at each of these aspects.
Relationship Jesus is the Firstborn of many brethren (Rom 8:29). His relationship with the Father was so close. He said “I and My Father are one” (Jn 10:30).
Jesus died to expiate your sins, so that you may also enter that closeness with the Father and have the same wonderful relationship Jesus had. That relationship develops as you pray to Him. You learn to fellowship with His Spirit through prayer. Hallowed be You cannot come before God, in His holy place, without reverence and godly fear. God said:
Your attitude in prayer is all important. The proud and arrogant cannot come close, but the poor in spirit can (Matt 5:3) – those who are small in their own eyes and who have reverence for the holy God. In Heaven
Remember you are a mere mortal – a physical being – made by the One who resides in a different dimension, a spiritual dimension, in absolute glory and magnificence in heaven! This realisation of our insignificance compared with His magnificence ought to cement in our minds the privilege we have to approach Him, and our unworthiness of ourselves. It required Jesus to open up a way for us to approach this Awesome God, symbolised by what the High Priest did on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16; Heb 9:24-28; 10:10).
Your will Who do you live for? Yourself or God? Is your life so self-orientated that He is eclipsed or occluded? Or does He have an eternally abiding place in your heart? If you live to do HIS will, then you will have meaningful contact with Him in prayer. Many believers, however, deceive themselves. Because they have some head knowledge, and read the Bible with a hunger to know more and to satisfy themselves spiritually, emotionally and mentally, they think that they automatically seek to do God’s will. It’s not always so.
Certainly, many Christians don’t know it. They assume they are doing God’s will when all they are doing is their own thing with a mental acquiescence to some of the knowledge of God. Knowledge about God is not the same as knowing God. You get to truly know Him by doing His will, and that requires you laying down YOUR life to adopt His within your spirit. It’s an attitude thing. And so is true prayer. Give us our daily bread Praying “give us this day our daily bread”, you are not merely asking for your physical sustenance. More importantly, you need Him to feed you His Bread from Heaven. Jesus is that living Bread (Jn 6:48-51), who must live in you (6:53-56). He will come into you as you yield yourself to Him. Each day you pray for spiritual sustenance He will give it through His Word as you read it and through His Spirit as you yield and obey. Forgive us We each need God’s forgiveness. Acknowledging from the heart how far we have wandered into depravity and evil, and how much we have hurt God by our selfish, self-willed, hard-hearted approach in life, is the only avenue to receive His forgiveness. Complacency or coolness about the sins we have committed blocks the flow of His mercy. We don’t see our need for God’s clemency, so we don’t receive it. But when we have the broken, contrite heart that the prodigal son exhibited (Lk 15:21), forgiveness flows from the Father. Brokenness makes the channel for it to flow, and heartfelt gratitude can accept it. As we forgive You get as good as you give. There is a law of reciprocity at work in all giving and receiving. Forgiveness is not easy for many. It’s simply not possible for the proud, for the self-assertive, for the stubborn. The attitude that gives forgiveness is the same as that which can accept it. Only the humble receive. And the humble give. Mercy and love are the outflow of forgiveness. Deliver us from the evil one Satan is out to get you and me. He wants to drag you back into sin, habitual sin that cuts you off from God. Each of us is prone to temptation. We all have weaknesses. The flesh is weak even when the spirit is willing. Our only hope of overcoming is in God through Jesus, with His Spirit dwelling in us. When you know your need for God, you know how much you need deliverance from the forces of evil that can so easily beset us. And your heart will cry out to God for Him to keep you from those attacks of the enemy which would utterly defeat us. Without a hatred of sin you cannot be protected from evil spirits. But humility and hatred of sin brings you under His umbrella of grace, where He shields you and protects you in His loving care. Yours is the kingdom
Those words are not in all the NT manuscripts, and the flow in the text continues along the theme of the need to be forgiving and humble. Even if they were not in the original text, they are very relevant. Many live for their own self-glorification. Their motives are self-seeking and self-elevating. People want power and influence. But our lot in this life is to do what Jesus did – lay down our lives. The ego must die so that Jesus can live in you. We are to live for God’s glory, not our own. Prayer is an exercise in that dying to self and living to God. It is part of your means of yielding your self to Him. Prayer is right attitude, not mere words.
Malcolm B Heap |