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.
This portion of scripture is taken from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6. Throughout the sermon, Jesus reveals the wicked hearts of the self righteous who think they are holy and follow the law. Here He is dealing with the theme of doing "good" things in order to be seen by others. It is not that other people see us that makes it wrong (Jesus talks about letting your light shine before others in 5:16) but it is the motivation in our heart that Jesus is revealing. Do we seek the attention of others in order to be praised and accepted by them? Or are we laser focused on our relationship with our Father? Where is our heart?
For me, it is easier to pray alone than with other people. The reason being is very simple, I am sensitive to what other people think about my words. I have a hard time to pray with a pure heart because I become focused on the performance. My heart is divided between praying and how my words sound to the others around me.
1. A heart that desires to have a relationship with God without the need to impress others.
And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
I do this all the time. Sometimes I know I should pray, so I pray and say a bunch of words that maybe sound holy, but my heart isn't completely in it. Sometimes reciting prayers, like the Lord's prayer that Jesus is about to teach us here, ends up just being empty words if we are not praying with the heart as well.
Another thing I do sometimes is pray for the same thing over and over again thinking if I pray enough times, perhaps God will hear me. I don't always have faith that God is listening so I end up praying just to pray. Here Jesus reveals something very important, that God already knows what we need! In fact, He knows better than we do. As a new step father, I am beginning to understand this. Maria and I are always focusing on what is truly best for the girls and sometimes what is best runs contradictory to what they want in the moment. It is the same with us as we pray over and over again something like "please God, I need this." It is important to remember He knows what we truly need and knows what is best for us. I am reminded of what Paul wrote in Romans 8:26. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. A simple groan from the Spirit can be a more acceptable prayer and be more meaningful in your relationship with God than one thousand beautiful words with a heart not aligned with His Spirit.
2. A heart that desires to be aligned with His Spirit.
After laying out what the desired heart should be of the person praying, Jesus begins to teach what is now the most famous prayer in the entire Bible. First, I think it is important to note that the words He uses have no power in and of themselves. This is not some magic incantation. As we see in the verses leading up to it, if you pray this prayer and in your heart you are trying to impress others or with a heart otherwise not aligned to the words of this prayer, they are nothing but "empty phrases." Therefore, I believe that what is important are not the words of this prayer but the heart behind these words. Having said that, this prayer is special indeed, for it is the model prayer that Jesus gave for how we should pray. So lets dig in.
Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name...
It is important to know who you are talking to. You are talking to the Creator of the universe, the One who put the stars in the sky and designed every cell in your entire body. You are conversing with infinite Love and Mercy. Our hearts should be filled with reverence. But at the same time, He is our Father! How amazing that through Jesus, we have been adopted as sons into His kingdom. Do you start your prayers with the deep awe that the great Creator is indeed our Father and loves us unconditionally? Is your heart filled with the greatness of God? Me neither. A lot of the time when I pray, I usually get straight to the point. "Lord, help me with this" or "I need that." But when we do that we are missing something very special because we have not taken in how amazing, loving, and powerful our Father is.
3. A heart filled with awe and worship at how AMAZING God is and that He is our Father!
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven...
When you pray, is your heart focused on yourself or the will of God? Are you thinking about what God can do to make you happy or for God's purposes to be completed on Earth? The truth is, we are selfish and God exposes us through this prayer. The object of prayer is not us, but God. He is not some genie in a lamp, giving us all of our wishes. He is the great I AM who through His endless love, has forgiven us of all wrong and adopted us as sons! We should be filled with joy as we align our hearts with His perfect will.
4. A heart that is focused on God's kingdom and will!
Give us this day our daily bread...
This would appear to be the first selfish part of the prayer, if not for the inclusion of "us" and "our." Just as the prayer starts with OUR father, we ask for Him to give US this day OUR daily bread. I believe at the heart of this entire prayer, it is a prayer not just for us as individuals but for us as a whole. We are praying for God to meet our own basic needs the same as we are praying that He meet the needs of our starving brothers and sisters in Africa. It is through this heart that as we pray, we become ONE (as Jesus prayed we would be in John 17:22).
5. A heart united with ALL members of the body of Christ
I am also struck by how He only instructs us to pray for what we need today. I pray a lot for needs in the future, which maybe isn't always a bad thing, but what happens is that the prayer essentially turns into worry, meaning we are not trusting God to provide. He instructs us in 6:34 Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. God wants us to be focused on the present, to only ask for what we need this day.
Maria and I worry a lot about money and being able to provide for the family in the future. But the funny thing is that everyday we have enough! When we look back at the past, we see that God has provided for us every single day. How silly is it that we worry that He might stop providing for us in the future. He sees our needs. We need to trust Him. By only asking for Him to meet our needs today, our hearts should be filled with confidence that He sees what we need tomorrow.
6. A heart focused on the needs of today with an implicit trust that God will continue to provide in the future.
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors...
In this there is freedom. One simple request and the slate is wiped clean and we can move forward with confidence. This is the key part to the prayer, the part where we are made right with God. To be able to ask for forgiveness though, we must be humble enough to be brought aware of the depravity of our hearts apart from God. Our debts are insurmountable and no amount of works can ever make up for it. Trying to earn His grace is folly, we can only receive it as a gift.
7. A heart with humility to see the depravity at its core and ask to be cleaned.
and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
First, He says give us, and then forgive us, and now lead us. Behind the words, there is an assumption that we can not provide for ourselves, that we can't pay back our debts with God, and now that we need to be led. In conclusion, the prayer is one utterly dependent on our Father. Missing are words that I use a lot in prayer which is "help me." That attitude in prayer might be good intentioned but behind it sometimes is an assumption that you can do some of it on your own, you just need a little "help." On the contrary, Jesus teaches us here to have a heart of utter dependence in prayer.
8. A heart utterly dependent on God
After we are made clean by His forgiveness, we ask that He lead us away from further temptation. Here Jesus reveals a heart that doesn't want to continue in its old ways but wants to follow the path of righteousness.
9. A heart that wants to stay in the light!
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
It is important not to take this verse the wrong way. It does not contradict other teachings in Scripture like Romans 8:1 which says: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The free gift of salvation for eternity, which Jesus accomplished on the cross as a perfect sacrifice, can not be taken away from us. Instead, it is a day to day cleansing that is withheld from us if we refuse to forgive others.
The fact that Jesus brings this up again means it is especially important. If we come into prayer with our Father while holding a grudge against someone else or with hearts hardened against others, you will not be made clean and will not be free.
10. A heart that is merciful
As a whole, what Jesus teaches us here about prayer should shake us to the very core. It reveals to us our own selfishness and how much we need to change to be more like Him. In the end, it is our heart, not our words, that God pays the most attention to. What are our hearts praying to God?
No comments:
Post a Comment