Pray Then Like This (Part 1)--Sermon on the Mount Series

            One of the most common problems we face in communicating with others is the problem of simply not knowing what to say. When we’re young, for example, there may be a lovely lady or a macho man who catches our eye, and we’d like to talk to them, but we never do because we feel like we simply don’t know what to say. Or perhaps as your parents grow older you feel a desire to somehow express to them all that they mean to you, but you hesitate for a long time because you just don’t know what to say.

            Since prayer is a form of communication, we might face this problem when we think about praying. I suspect most Christians would say, “I don’t pray as often as I’d like to,” and perhaps a major factor in that reality is the feeling that we simply don’t know what to say. Well, the Lord Jesus very graciously has given us a model prayer to teach us how to pray. Notice that I did not say what to pray, as though Jesus was saying, “You should pray the following words and these words only.” Rather, the Lord has given us something like an outline for our prayers that will help us pray with the proper attitudes.

            This teaching comes through the passage that we normally call today, “The Lord’s Prayer,” and we find one record of it in The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:9-15. Let’s read this whole section, then we’ll begin to pull out the lessons that we should learn from it [READ 6:9-15].

            Remember that Jesus has just warned us not to pray with a desire to gain praise from others or in a manner that tries to manipulate God (as if we needed to do that!). So now that He’s told us how NOT to pray, He tells us how to pray, beginning in v. 9 with the statement, “pray then like this.” Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “pray this,” but rather “pray like this.” He is giving us an example of how to pray, not telling us what the exact contact of all our prayers must be.

            You may have grown up in a church or denomination that recited this prayer on a weekly basis, and that’s fine as long as we know what we are praying. But therein lies the problem—many people have recited this prayer without having any idea what they were actually saying! How many people actually know what the word “hallowed” means? If we recite a memorized prayer without having any idea of what we’re actually asking for, then we’re right back to that kind of pagan praying that Jesus warned us about in vv. 7-8.

            The point of Jesus’ instruction was not to give us specific words to pray—though again, it is fine to pray these words as long as you know what they mean. But the real point of Jesus’ instruction was to give us a model to follow, an example to imitate, in the same way that you might teach your children to imitate the style of your prayers.

So what is the manner or the attitude in which we should pray?

In What Manner Should We Pray?

1. A manner that is personal

            We draw this lesson from the simple address “our Father.” The Sermon on the Mount strongly emphasizes that we enjoy a relationship with God that is like that of a child to a father. In just these three chapters that comprise The Sermon on the Mount, God is referred to as our Father 16 times. This kind of repetition clearly makes a deliberate emphasis, and I think there’s a very practical reason for it—the kind of choice that Jesus is calling His audience to make is a choice that may put them out of favor with their own parents. As it is in some parts of the world today, when people at that time accepted Christ, they ran the risk of being rejected by their own family members. So as Jesus calls His audience to make that choice, He repeatedly reminds them that if they embrace Him, they will have God Himself as their Father.

            Through Jesus, we have a personal, intimate relationship with God, and we can express that reality through the privilege of addressing God as our Father. Remember how different that notion is from the way that the Gentiles thought about their own gods. They had no concept that their gods played the role of a father to them. Their gods were indifferent toward them, and perhaps if you did the right things in the right way you could move the gods to act in your behalf, but to think of the gods having the loving compassion of a father was completely foreign to them.

            This address—our Father in heaven—is also notable for how short it is. Last week I mentioned that the Gentiles would often pile on titles of honor when addressing their gods. That manner of speaking was found in Jewish circles as well. But for the Christian, we don’t have to go on and on with titles and formalities when we speak to God—we can address Him simply and plainly, because that’s the way that personal relationships work, isn’t it? We don’t use titles and formalities with friends and family.

            Last week, I was back at my alma mater, Calvary Bible College. I ran into several of my old professors, and I kept calling them “Dr. so-and-so.” But they kept telling me, “Oh, just call me Jim.” It’s a little awkward sometimes to make that transition, but they were letting me know that there was no longer any need for titles, no longer any need for formalities. They considered me a friend and a colleague now, so I could address them as such.

            And so it is with God—He is our Father, and we can address Him as such. Along with that, we don’t have to use formal language when we pray. We can simply speak using our normal vocabulary. We don’t need to get out a thesaurus and use all kinds of high-fallutin’ language—we can speak to God in a manner that is personal.

Yet of course we must remember to speak with…

2. A manner that is respectful

            Though we can relate to God on a level that is personal rather than formal, we must remember that our spiritual Father is still “our Father in heaven.” The fact that He is our Father does not diminish by one iota the fact that He is majestic and glorious and worthy of our worship. As 1 Peter 1:17-19 states, “If you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

            So, as we embrace the freedom to speak to God in a way that is personal rather than formal, we must still pray in a manner that is respectful rather than flippant.

3. A manner that is worshipful

            Remember that the idea of “worship” or “praise” is the idea of declaring how valuable something is. I take this lesson that prayer should be worshipful from the phrase “hallowed be your name.” I think this is a place where traditionalism has not served the Church well. “Hallowed” is not a commonly used word today, yet modern translations of the Bible continue to use it, mainly just to uphold tradition.

            I read an article once by the man who served as the chairman of the New Testament translation committee for the English Standard Version that I preach from, and he said that when the committee discussed this verse, he pushed for a different translation. But the rest of the committee said, in effect, “Everyone has memorized this verse as ‘hallowed be your name’—we can’t change it!”

            And so we live with this word. The word “hallowed” simply means “set apart.” I think the best way to translate this phrase might be “may Your name be uniquely honored.” Remember that the idea of God’s “name” refers to his reputation. It’s the same idea we’re talking about when we say that someone is “making a name” for himself or “you’re dragging my name through the mud.” We’re talking about a person’s reputation.

            So Jesus is teaching us to express our desire for God’s reputation and fame to be placed in a class all by itself. Perhaps you can see then how this is a statement of worship. We are acknowledging that God is worthy to have his name or reputation honored in such a way.

            As we think about how to express this thought in our own prayers, I think we can take a lesson from the Old Testament book of Psalms. In the Psalms, the authors would frequently praise God by describing how they could see what kind of God He is through the things He has done. Think of Psalm 139:14 for example: “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” If I can paraphrase, King David was saying, “God I praise you because I can see how powerful and intelligent you must be through the way you made me.”

            So we might express an idea like “hallowed by your name” through statements of thanksgiving for example. We might say, “Lord, I praise you for being so generous in meeting my needs today.” And of course, when we express a desire for God’s reputation to be uniquely honored, we’re expressing a commitment to do what we can to honor God’s name. So we could also express this idea with some requests: “Lord, help me to honor you today with the things I say and the way I act.”

4. A manner that is confident

            I take this lesson from two phrases—first, the address “our Father.” Remember when we talked about pagan praying last week, I said that the Gentiles had no confidence that their gods even cared about them. But we have a very different context for our prayers—we are praying to a God who has actually taken the initiative to make us His children. Our Lord Jesus understands us inside and out, and now He is in Heaven as our advocate. That’s why Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

            I also draw this lesson from the first phrase of v. 10, “your kingdom come.” In essence, this statement is a request for God to carry out the promises that He has made in the Bible. All throughout the Old Testament, God described His intention to establish a kingdom in this world ruled by His Chosen One, the Messiah. This kingdom would be a kingdom of peace, joy, and justice. It will be, when Jesus returns to establish it, the pinnacle of human history in this world.

            So this statement in v. 10 is a plea for God to move forward with His plan, to fulfill the promises that He has made. When we remember that we pray to a God who has a plan and is in control of history, that should give us tremendous confidence. Praying to God is far above the level of simply wishing upon a star or making a wish as you blow out the candles on your birthday cake. It isn’t just some shot in the dark all dressed up in religious language. We are praying to the One who actually can make a difference, the One who is in control. He has a plan and He has given us many details about it.

            This lesson is one that can keep us going through those times when it seems like we’re not receiving any answer to our prayers. Perhaps you have prayed for years for reconciliation with a family member or for some kind of need in your own life like a health problem or a financial need, and it just seems like you’re not getting any answer. In those moments, it is so easy to feel like there’s no rhyme or reason behind things or that nothing will ever happen. It is so helpful in those times to remember that God does have a plan. He has an overall plan for history about which we know many details, but that also means He’s in control of our daily lives to bring our stories into resolution with His plan. You may be five days, five hours, or five minutes away from receiving an answer to your prayers that is totally unexpected and better than what you had originally asked for in the first place!

            I want to close our time today by reading a parable that Jesus told in Luke 18:1-8 [READ Luke 18:1-8]. The Lord’s question is the question that we must wrestle with—will Jesus find us living in faith when he comes? According to this parable, faith is expressed by persistence in prayer. Will Jesus find us persistently coming to God with our needs, despite an apparent delay from God? Remember that God does have a plan will help us remain confident in prayer.

Are You Praying Like a Pagan?--Sermon on the Mount Series

            I bet most of you think you’ve never done anything particularly shocking or outrageous, but let me tell you, you are some pretty scandalous people! Maybe not “headline news” scandalous, but scandalous in a more subtle yet astonishing sort of way. Here’s why—because you are people who pray as if God actually wants to hear what you have to say. Let me explain what I mean.

            In the history of thoughts about God and religion, Christianity is kind of infamous because of the extraordinary claims that we make. We claim that God Himself became one of us, and that as a human He died to pay for the very sins that we had committed against Him. We claim that Jesus has provided the only way for us to be forgiven of our sins. But right up there with these incredible claims, we have to place the way we pray. We believe we pray, as William Barclay put it, to “a God of love who is more ready to answer than we are to pray.”¹

            Our beliefs about prayer capture some of the most distinctive elements about Christianity, yet it is here, in this very activity, that we face some of our strongest temptations to think and to act just like pagans. But our Lord Jesus has warned us about some of these temptations, and we would do well to pay attention to His warnings today.

            The Lord’s teaching on prayer in Matthew 6 stretches from v. 5 to v. 15. He first tells us how NOT to pray before giving us the model prayer that we refer to today as The Lord’s Prayer. We’ll go through v. 8 today to see what Jesus has to say about the temptations we face to pray in the wrong manner.

The Temptation to Pray in order to Get Recognition from Others

            This is the same temptation that Jesus warned us about with respect to giving in vv. 2-4. Now he sounds the warning about the same temptation with respect to prayer: “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.”

            Of course, the desire is not merely to be seen by others as in, “Oh, there’s Bob praying over there.” It’s to be SEEN by others as in, “Whoa—there’s Bob praying over there. Let us all bask in the warm glow of his holiness!” Jesus may have been painting a humorous word picture here. The Greek word translated “be seen” can be translated in some contexts as “shine.” That’s what the Pharisees wanted—they wanted to shine in the eyes of others, like people in toothpaste commercials who have that little sparkle of light reflecting off of their teeth.

            They wanted to have that kind of recognition from others, and to a certain extent they got it. But as with the previous paragraph, the Lord states, “Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.” Any recognition they received completed all the reward they would ever get.

            Now, the Lord is not saying that we should never pray in public. It’s the motive that’s the problem, not the location. Jesus Himself prayed in front of large groups before some of His miracles, but in terms of his daily habit of prayer, Luke 5:16 says, “He would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” So that’s the example that He calls us to follow: “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.”

            If you have a walk-in pantry in your house, that’s the kind of room that Jesus was talking about in this verse. It’s a place where you’d be shocked to actually run into someone else. Of course, choosing a place like that to pray reveals that you’re not praying for an audience of anyone but God. And for that, Jesus says, “your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

            So we must be on guard against this temptation to use prayer as a forum for showing off. A good way to do that is to do your regular praying in private. Then, if you are in a public setting of prayer, just be aware that this temptation may rear its ugly head.

The Temptation to Use Prayer as a Tool for Manipulation

            Jesus has more to say about prayer than He does about the other activities in this section—giving to the needy and fasting. Exhibit A in the lesson of how NOT to pray was the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the Jewish people. For Exhibit B, Jesus turns his attention outside of Judaism to focus on the Gentiles, which is simply a general term for anyone who is not Jewish. Its usage is similar to the way that we might refer to all Native Americans as “the Indians”—it’s a very general term that lumps together lots of people into one category.

            Here, the focus is not on ethnicity but on the way that non-Jewish people around Israel at that time practiced their religion. In v. 7, Jesus says, “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.” What exactly does Jesus mean when He says, “do not heap up empty phrases?” The King James and New King James translations say, “do not use vain repetitions.” What is Jesus getting at?

            Some students of Scripture have thought that Jesus may have been speaking against the use of memorized prayers, since of course you are repeating the same words if you pray a memorized prayer on a regular basis. But I don’t think that memorized prayers were Jesus’ primary concern, at the very least. Obviously, the Lord does not want us to turn our brains on auto-pilot and just go through the motions, but you can do that whether you’re praying a memorized prayer or not. Just listen to yourself pray before a meal and ask how many times you’ve gone through the motions and used those exact words.

            All in all, I think using a memorized prayer can be just fine in the same way that singing “Amazing Grace” for the 20,000^th time can be just fine. If your mind is engaged and the words accurately reflect the thoughts of your heart, then using a memorized prayer could be just as acceptable to God as praising Him by singing an old hymn.

            The key to understanding the Lord’s warning here is simply to keep it in context. He says, “do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” One common thread in Gentile religion, whether it was Canaanite or Greek or Roman, was that prayer was an effort to convince a god who was indifferent toward you to intervene on your behalf. They had no confidence and no real reason to think that their gods really cared about them all that much, so their prayers had to persuade their god to act.

            Sometimes, they would butter up their god by piling on as many compliments as they could: “Oh great, awesome, majestic, wonderful, stupendous, spectacular deity…” Or they might remind their god of all the sacrifices they had offered, or make vows to do certain things if their prayer was answered. In some religions, they would cut themselves or do other painful things to try and move their god to show them compassion.

            And of course, the longer you did all of this, the better, because it would increase your odds of gaining your god’s attention. This is the kind of praying that Jesus is talking about. He’s telling us not to approach our Heavenly Father with the same kind of ideas that the pagans approached their gods. To put it another way, He’s telling us not to approach God the way we used to approach our teachers in high school when we would fluff up a research paper. Everyone knows an eight page paper looks better than a six page paper, so if you ran out of things to say too quickly, what would you do? You’d just fluff it up, right? Today you might search Google for a few more quotes that you could just stuff in there, even though you’re really not adding anything of substance.

            Basically, we were trying to manipulate our teachers to get what we wanted—a good grade. Jesus tells us that that is not the way we should view prayer—as a tool of manipulation to get what we want. We don’t need to fluff up our prayers and go on and on as though we can leave the Lord so flattered and impressed that He will answer us. Specifically, I think Jesus is warning us about two thoughts that can quietly cause us to pray in a manner that is essentially pagan.

            1. That God can be manipulated through prayer.

            It is so easy for us to think that if we get down on our knees and stay there until they hurt and our backs ache and our voices are hoarse, then God will see how serious we are about this whole prayer business and He’ll give us what we ask for. Likewise we can treat phrases like “in Jesus’ name I pray” as some kind of magical formula, and as long as we tack that on to the end of our prayers then God is compelled to give us what we ask for. My friends, the idea that effective prayer is all about standing the right way or saying the right things is not Christian prayer—it is paganism, but do you see how easily we can slip into this mindset?

            I know I encounter a strong temptation to think like this when I need to pray for forgiveness. I can approach those prayers thinking that I need to make myself feel really bad, and if I can just feel bad enough then I can be confident that God will forgive me. But this is simply manipulation! Our confidence must not come from our own feelings but from believing the promises of God, and if I don’t feel like my heart is grieved enough over my sin, I can simply ask God to help me have an appropriate response when I sin.

The second thought that may cause us to pray like pagans is perhaps even worse than the first, because it so clearly takes our unique and holy God and puts Him on the same level as dead idols.

            2. That God needs to be manipulated through prayer, otherwise He will not answer.

            As I said a moment ago, when the pagans prayed, they didn’t think that their god had any particular inclination to answer their prayer. Their gods had to be persuaded, nagged, coaxed, flattered; their prayers were like an unwelcome interruption.

            But what a different picture is painted for us in Scripture! When we come before the throne of grace in prayer, we don’t come as trespassers or uninvited visitors but as long-awaited guests for whom preparations have been made. We come as children to a loving Father who is already inclined to hear us.

            He is not annoyed by our prayers—He has been anticipating them! That’s why Jesus says in v. 6, “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” God is already interested in our cares and concerns; in fact, He’s been keeping tabs on them. Like any good father, God is anticipating the needs of His children and He’s already working to meet them.

            Do you see why I say that prayer highlights all that is unique about Christianity? We are invited to speak anytime we like to our loving Father, who went to great pains to establish this relationship with us. He has already promised to meet our needs and is busy doing just that, so we can pray with the confidence that He is not only interested in us, but He is actually on our side, working to our advantage.

            Do you see what a subtle insult it is, then, if we approach God with the idea that we have to butter Him up or impress Him or bribe Him to get Him to take notice of us? Oh what a misunderstanding of God’s love and grace! We cannot say it better than the old hymn:

Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,

Thy wings shall my petition bear

To Him whose truth and faithfulness

Engage the waiting soul to bless

And since He bids me seek His face,

Believe His Word, and trust His grace,

I’ll cast on Him my every care,

And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer.

Notes:

1. William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, 2 vols., The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 1:227.