5 “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites. They love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners and pray so people will see them. I tell you the truth, they already have their full reward. 6 When you pray, you should go into your room and close the door and pray to your Father who cannot be seen. Your Father can see what is done in secret, and he will reward you.
7 “And when you pray, don’t be like those people who don’t know God. They continue saying things that mean nothing, thinking that God will hear them because of their many words. 8 Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him. 9 So when you pray, you should pray like this:
‘Our Father in heaven,
may your name always be kept holy.
10 May your kingdom come
and what you want be done,
here on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us the food we need for each day.
12 Forgive us for our sins,
just as we have forgiven those who sinned against us.
13 And do not cause us to be tempted,
but save us from the Evil One.’ [The kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours forever. Amen.]
Read Matthew 6:5-13 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
In one of Jesus’ most famous sermons, He takes a few verses to draws our attention onto the concept of prayer. During Jesus’ life on earth, prayer was something that was misunderstood and/or misused.
Jesus begins by saying that we should not be like hypocrites who pray publicly for the praise of others. These people pray in public to look good to others, and as a result of this, their focus is not on pleasing God.
Next, He says we should not pray like those people who really don’t know or understand who God is. If God is truly all-knowing, then using lots of words or repeating ourselves is a pointless thing to do because God already knows what we need. Jesus counters this idea with a simple prayer that He introduces by saying, “So when you pray, you should pray like this …” (v. 9a)
While what follows is famously known as “The Lord’s Prayer”, too often we focus on what Jesus said rather than the principle Jesus was trying to teach. In this model prayer, Jesus focuses us first on recognizing who God is – and specific on His position in the universe. We then recognize our need for His help, and we submit ourselves to Him. We ask for conditional forgiveness based upon how forgiving we are, before finishing off by asking for protection from the evil one. Tradition finished off this prayer by looking again at God’s position in the universe – even though the famous conclusion to Jesus’ model prayer is not in many of the earliest manuscripts.
However, too many people miss that this is a framework for prayer more than it is a sample prayer we must memorize and include in our prayer lives. Jesus’ prayer is perfect in its simplicity, in its focus, and in its humility, but with that said, we still can miss the point if we pray it word-for-word like the godless people and the hypocrites that Jesus warned us about.
Instead, prayer should focus on who God is and how much we need His help. Our focus should be on uplifting God and humbling ourselves. Everything Jesus says in His model prayer focuses on these two points.
When we pray, let’s lift God up while humbling ourselves – and not get these two ideas confused.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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