JESUS’ TEACHING ON PRAYER

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites….And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans….this then is how you should pray.” Matthew 6:5,7,8.

Although Jesus gives specific teaching on prayer, the whole of the Sermon on the Mount is interwoven with principles which apply to our prayer lives e.g., unforgiveness blocks our fellowship with God, as does a critical and judgmental spirit, broken relationships with people, greed, worry etc. and even our attitude to Jesus’ teachings. Since most of us learn to pray by listening to and copying other people, we need a complete mind shift about prayer.

In Matthew 6:5-8 Jesus clears the ground by using the illustration of two classes of people who had become role models for the ordinary people; religious people (whom He called “hypocrites”) and pagans (nationals or Gentiles).

Hypocrites (play actors) were people with more than one face, playing an assumed character to an audience. People who are praying to an audience are more aware of the people around them than of God. The antidote to people-awareness is solitude. Get away from people so that you can focus on God.

Gentiles were idol worshippers. Their problem was to get their gods to hear them. (e.g., Elijah and the prophets of Baal). Since their gods were deaf and dumb and without understanding, they had to use many words in their prayers.  Jesus called it “babbling” from the Greek word “to stutter”. We also easily fall into the trap of thinking that we must explain or repeat ourselves as though God were either deaf or retarded. Prayer is not about words. Prayer is about awareness.

Because we have the wrong idea about prayer, we think that the purpose for prayer is to make God aware of our needs. Words and needs are connected. We must use the right words to make sure God understands our needs. This concept of prayer is erroneous for two reasons. It ignores the fact the God is our Father, and it forgets that God knows our needs before we ask Him

In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus teaches us how to view our needs. He said, “Take no thought…” This does not mean worry. It means do not allow thoughts to consume your mind to the exclusion of everything else. Your basic human needs are to be the concern of your Father, not yours.  You are of greater value than birds and flowers.  Let God fulfil His role as a true Father without your taking that from Him.

You are to have a different spirit from the Gentiles whose whole life is taken up with meeting their own needs. God’s way for us is to take care of the needs of others.  Then He will take care of our needs.

The first step in understanding what prayer is, is to recognise that prayer is not about words or needs but about becoming aware of God and moving into the environment of our Father’s knowledge and care of us. We should never approach our God in the same manner as the hypocrites or pagans who use their gods to suit their own ends. W come to our God one His terms as the great sovereign of the universe and we as His subjects.