(Read Matthew 6)
When I was a child, I was taught to pray, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the LORD, my soul to keep, if I should die before I wake, I pray the LORD, my soul to take.” On the one hand, it showed me the authority of God, but it left me empty in terms of a loving relationship between a father and child. It was such a rote prayer for me, I remember bargaining with God for something I wanted, promising I would repeat it 5, 10, and sometimes 50 times if He would grant my request. Even at a young age, I understood the certainty of my place with God; I just don’t remember feeling the connection.
Dad made us go to church. I’m not sure Mom cared all that much, but it’s what other friends and neighbors did, so that was probably some motivation. After Communion, we would stand for the LORD’s Prayer. As a saved follower of Christ, praying this prayer with my congregation means so much to me. It is profound, reflective, personal, and corporate at the same time. Hearing a room filled with voices all praying to “Our Father” in unison brings me closer to my brothers and sister and, more importantly, closer to God. At our last church, someone would ring a bell in our steeple when we were praying Jesus’ model prayer. If for some reason, we couldn’t make church on a Sunday, it was a comforting feeling to hear the bells from a distance.
As a child, the prayer was more or less just something to recite. Maybe 5% of it had meaning to me, and I’m not being controversial; I’m just being honest. I would look around and notice plenty of blank faces and stale voices repeating those timeless and all-powerful words. I haven’t thought about this until I decided to write this devotional. My observations could be skewed entirely by my own feelings. That’s how I felt, so everyone else must have thought the same thing. A few friends from that church and I had such strong feelings about the practices of mindless repetition of prayer that we did a series of videos to extrapolate their true meaning.
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Matthew 6:7-8
This passage is part of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus gave guidance on all kinds of aspects of faith and life. Jesus saw the need to teach His disciples how to pray to provide them with a model for prayer that best aligned with God’s will. At the time, many religious people prayed with empty repetitions or for public recognition rather than of genuine devotion. Many were familiar with Jewish prayers and customs and prayed responses accordingly. Jesus needed to correct this by showing the disciples a simple, heartfelt approach to communicating with God. The prayer calls for humility, dependence on God, forgiveness, and submission.
Jesus might have thought people were praying on autopilot or praying big prayers from the point of personal gain rather than an inward show of piety. We might not know where others are praying from, but God knows the difference. I’ve seen plenty of people pray lofty prayers filled with churchy words, which can be impressive. I believe they’re sincere in their intentions, but I’m sometimes lost in the message. Jesus then cautioned against an even worse offense. When praying for personal reward, a showy style can be seen and praised by others, leading to self-promotion rather than genuine communication with God. Jesus taught that prayer should be personal and heartfelt, whether privately or corporately, the intention should always be to connect with God, not to impress people.
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
Matthew 6:9-13
Jesus began the prayer with an unambiguous emphasis on the intimate, loving nature of the “Our Father” God. He isn’t some distant, impersonal deity requiring an intermediary. He’s the example of a perfect father whom any other earthly dad has never represented. He’s the father who lifts us, loves us, corrects us, and will spend an eternity refining us. No other religion can claim the same relationship with their God.
Reading the words carefully with intent reveals a clear and very bold message. In his article entitled, “Why the Lord’s Prayer Is So Offensive,” Andrew Wilson first mentioned that an ad featuring the Lord’s Prayer was once banned in the UK. The reasons cited were because it could offend or upset people of different faiths or no faith. “The Lord’s Prayer is not mild, inoffensive, vanilla, listless, nominal, wishy-washy, or wallpapery,” he wrote. No it’s not. It’s only offensive if you don’t believe you have a Divine Father who rules Heaven and Earth, if you don’t believe in being grateful for having literal and spiritual food to sustain you, or if you don’t believe in forgiveness, or if you don’t want to be saved from evil.
What’s interesting about Jesus’ model prayer is that He used the words “Our,” “we,” and “us.” Something that might offend many today, but no first-person singular pronouns were used in what Jesus taught us. There’s always a lot of discussion and debate surrounding corporate prayer in church, and I see the merits of both. With liturgical churches, there can be a tendency to rifle through the prayers read in unison robotically. During these occasions, they can lose meaning and significance. On the other hand, in contemporary worship settings, something is often missing when the congregation doesn’t have an opportunity to directly communicate anything to God. Services that are limited to a few praise songs and an inspiring sermon might for some lack input from the body of Christ without adequate prayer time.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6–7
The Apostle Paul had a few things to complement what Jesus showed us about prayer in His sermon on the Mount. These verses also remind us to pray to God with a spirit of gratitude. We find peace that surpasses our understanding by turning to God instead of temporary things in prayer with our fears, problems, and needs. The verses capture the importance of constant prayer, expressing our needs and desires to God, and trusting in His sovereignty.
The tone of our prayers should be humble and earnest pleas. “Supplications” are often accompanied by a sense of urgency or deep need. Sometimes they go beyond general prayer, emphasizing the heartfelt nature of the petition, where the person prays with deep sincerity, seeking God’s help, mercy, and intervention in a specific situation.
In the Old Testament, people would pray to God through an intermediary, whether Moses, a prophet, or a priest. Now, we not only pray directly to the creator of the universe, but we’re told how to. We’re given the access and the tools to chat with the author of life and giver of hope. Over and over again, Jesus resisted the norms of tradition to illustrate and teach the spirit of the law. The proper framework for prayer is that it’s a heart matter, not a formula.
What does God want us to know about prayer?
In 1988, the LA Times wrote a piece citing “The Jesus Seminar” where several scholars decided that the early church wrote the Lord’s Prayer, not Jesus. Instead of in-depth research, dialog, and apologetics, they used a voting system to decide what parts of the New Testament they believed were authentic. The participants openly admitted their disbelief in the deity, resurrection, miracles, or substitutionary fulfillment of Christ. Subsequently, they painted a different Jesus than the one taught in the Bible. It’s easy to attribute things you don’t agree with to some narrative-fitting conspiracy. Jesus unquestionably spoke and taught the model prayer, and I know this because it mirrors everything else He taught throughout His ministry. And because the Bible attributed it to Him.
Eighty-three years earlier, Philosopher and writer G.K Chesterton replied to an article in a different periodical to the question, “What is Wrong with This World?” His answer captured the humility of the human condition perfectly. He wrote, “I am wrong.Until a man can give that answer his idealism is only a hobby.”
Chesterton’s answer summarized the humility and honest confession of the human condition Jesus seeks in our prayers. While there’s no secret solution for every person or every church, the LORD’s Prayer said aloud is one way to confess our desires, our thanks, our forgiveness of others, and our smallness to our Father. One day, I volunteered to climb up into the steeple to fix the broken rope that made our church bell sing. I commented to a friend, “Imagine what the world would sound like if every church rang a bell at the same time when praying to God?”
Jesus taught us to pray honestly, lovingly, and purely. What does that sound like to you?
And your name will be magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you.
2 Samuel 7:26
Key Applications:
- Acknowledge God’s Sovereignty. Begin your prayer time by honoring God’s holiness, recognizing His authority and plan.
- Seek God’s Will in all you do. Prioritize His Will in your life, aligning your decisions with His desires.
- Seek and extend forgiveness, fostering grace and reconciliation in relationships.