When You Pray

October 24, 2010
Matthew 6:5-15
This is how you should pray . . .

We began with a review of Jesus' conflict with the religious leaders. He called them hypocrites. They were all about show, appearing to be good, without the substance. Their motivation was wrong. They wanted praise from others, not honor for God.

Today, we often think of hypocrites as doing what they say others should not do. Perhaps the definition has changed. The Greek term is often explained as stressing "play acting" rather than "not walking the talk." Not walking the talk is part of the definition even in Greek, however.

Jesus was saying, "My disciples do not pray for show."

When Jesus mentioned a "reward in full" for those whose prayers were meant to attract attention, what did He mean? Perhaps they sought affirmation from others. But that isn't praise worth having. Spiritually discerning people aren't fooled by such prayers.

What is the reward offered from the Father? The class mentioned such possibilities as the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and having one's prayers answered. But the major reward seems to be a stronger relationship to God Himself. We can receive the "Praise of heaven" rather than "praise of other people."

Jesus' warned about babbling like pagans, sometimes explained as "vain repetition." If God already knows about the situation, our prayer isn't intended to get His attention. We shouldn't measure spirituality by the number of words in someone's prayer. Perhaps "embellishment" is a good term for what some prayers add. Such additions reminded us of the prayers of Baal's prophets in their struggle with Elijah (1 Kings 18).

If God already knows what we want and need, why do we ask Him? Prayer enables the relationship. We are acknowledging our dependence upon God. In Luke 18, Jesus gives the illustration of the persistent widow. Of course, we don't need to badger God. But we recalled Dr. Middendorf's abduction and the prayer offered by someone half a world away. (The podcast for his 10/17/10 messaage is available here.) Prayer is a faith-strengthener for one called to pray. Our involvement is desired by God, and it is expressed through prayer.

The Lord's prayer (verses 9-13) doesn't have a place to "insert requests here." Rather, "your will be done" is included. By mentioning specific needs and wants to God, we are acknowledging His power, whether the result is what I originally wanted or not.

David quoted Myron Augsberger about prayer: "Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, it is being willing to accept His will in our lives. Prayer moves the hand of God by giving Him the moral freedom to do in our lives what He has been wanting to do. God, in His sovereign practice, does not impose His will upon us."

But God's will isn't always done here. Meanwhile, a reward of prayer is our being faithful.

John Wesley was cited as saying "God only acts in response to our prayers." Several of us thought that was a bit extreme; after all, He created without anyone praying. [The more full quotation is "God does nothing except by prayer, and everything with it."]

We had questions about a picture of the universe with God saying, "I wish someone would pray so that I could rescue Jess Middendorf." But Daniel 10:12-14 suggests that our prayers actually make a difference in God's ability to act.

While requests aren't specifically mentioned in the Lord's prayer, they are demonstrated in other parts of Jesus' teaching. When we do ask for something, do we weaken the request by adding "but your will be done"? Isn't that sort of giving God an escape clause? That way, if the request is denied, we can convince ourselves that God was responding to the second part of the prayer rather than the first. Time was running short, so David wanted to move that discussion to the next session on October 31.