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 Jesus’ teaching on prayer, before giving us a model we can follow, He gives us some words of caution. In these warnings, Jesus tells us to avoid being like those who don’t know God. This in itself is an interesting statement, because why would anyone pray if they didn’t know God.
Perhaps Jesus wants to contrast the people who pray to other gods vs. those who pray to the One True God – Jesus’ Father. Jesus tells His followers, “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. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.” (v. 7-8)
Perhaps Jesus had witnessed people repetitively praying the same thing over and over again, or perhaps He is referring to chanting or other rituals people add into their prayer lives. Jesus cuts to the heart of why some of these people might use many words – and that is because they think more words equal a better, more acceptable prayer to God.
However, Jesus flips the idea on its head by saying that on one level, prayers that ask for things are virtually unnecessary, since God already knows what we need before we ask.
So why ask God for anything?
Perhaps we ask to help remind us that God is our Provider. While on the surface, money, jobs, and stores provide for our needs, we can step deeper to the idea that it is really our relationships with others. Looking deeper than our relationships leads us to realize that God is the only one who truly has provided for us: He gave us life, He gives us breath, and He provides us opportunities to connect with others and Himself.
When we pray to God, Jesus wants us to realize that God hears us and He knows what we are going through. The prayer then becomes us coming to Him to release our problems into His hands, and to surrender to His will for our lives. We don’t need many words to accomplish this – especially when we understand that God already knows our situation better than we could imagine.
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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