It’s always good to reflect on the things we might take for granted in the Christian life.

There really are all sorts of things we do as Christians that we could take for granted:

• Serving the church
• Evangelism
• Bible study
• Prayer
• Giving

And so on…

So these notes are an attempt to do some reflecting on prayer. Specifically they serve to ask two key questions about prayer:

1. What is prayer in the first place?
2. How should we pray?

And rather than me just waxing lyrical about this subject, there’s a better teacher who can answer those questions for us.

Jesus.

Jesus famously taught about prayer within the sermon on the mount passages in Matthew’s gospels.

Let’s take a quick look at the first part of his teaching on this subject:

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

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.

What Prayer Isn’t

These first few passages are really helpful for figuring out what Jesus thinks is antithetical to prayer.

He does this by setting up two sets of contrasting scenarios.

In the first scenario, Jesus makes an allusion to the Pharisees.

In the 1st Century, in Jerusalem, the Jews would pray at least three times a day at set times – morning, noon and night. Because of this, it was typical to see people praying in public in all kinds of situations.

Jesus isn’t criticising public prayer here. To understand why, we need to know a little more about the hypocrites Jesus refers to in this passage.

Being a Pharisee was a position of privelage and influence in society. Prominent pharisees had the ear of the ruling elites and opportunities for power and wealth.

Some wicked people saw this as an opportunity for gain rather than an opportunity to authentically seek God, and so, these people made a big show out of their piety.

They didn’t care about God, they didn’t care about prayer, they cared about being seen in public as the most holy and righteous pharisee.

And Jesus rightly condemns this attitude towards prayer and compares it to a radically different scenario – a private bedroom scene where the only people present are the person praying and the Father.

Jesus isn’t saying, ‘you must always pray in public’ – He himself prayed publically. Jesus is telling us something about what prayer isn’t though.

1. Prayer isn’t a performance
2. Prayer isn’t insincere

In the second scenario, Jesus talks about the pagans babbling on. This is peak comedy on Jesus’ part, making a complete mockery of something the Greeks and Romans took very seriously.

In Greko-Roman culture, the gods were completely disinterested in the affairs of humans. And so, ordinary people had to approach prayer in a very specific way if they wanted to have a chance at being heard.

They would recite long lists of exuberent phrases designed to cover all potential loopholes and reasons for the gods to ignore them, they would endlessly chant the names of as many gods as they could think of until a god heard their own name and listened.

And Jesus describes this in the same sort of way as we’d describe someone waffling on today going “blah, blah, blah…”.

And the point Jesus makes is this:

1. Prayer isn’t formulaic
2. Prayer isn’t about nagging God for attention

The contrast Jesus presents is stark in Matthew 6:8 – God knows you already, so just come to Him.

So, armed with the knowledge of what prayer isn’t. What is it?

What is prayer?

I’m not a theologian. You’ll find better and more thoughtful ideas out there.

My working definition is:

Prayer happens when we communicate to God in the presence of God – it’s always personal but can also be corporate.

I think this (in a clumsy way perhaps) captures some of the most important aspects of prayer.

Let’s continue to look at Jesus’ teaching in Matthew’s gospel to unpack this a bit.

“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.”

Remember, Jesus has just made the point that prayer is much more about the internal workings of your heart than it is about the externals. Jesus isn’t telling us what to pray here but how to pray.

And it starts with a shocking revelation of how we relate to God.

Our Father…

He’s our father.

The mighty God who made the heavens and earth, who appeared to Israel in a demonstration of fierce power as they wondered in the desert.

This magnificent God is inviting to relate to him as a father.

That’s an incredible thought when we consider all the things that a father is supposed to be (though many of us have earthly fathers far removed from this).

• Loving
• Guiding
• Present
• Nurturing
• Protecting
• Encouraging
• Invested in us
• Role modelling

I could go on…

This is how Jesus choses to reveal the God we approach in prayer.

WOW.

Hallowed be your name

Next Jesus draws our attention to God’s holiness. He invites us to seek that in our world.

The world around us wants to cheapen the nature of God.

“Perhaps he doesn’t even exist” the world and the devil whisper to us.

Blasphemy – our God is Holy. And we come to him in prayer longing for the world to acknowledge His holiness.

Your Kingdom, your will…

Jesus then asks us to contemplate the rule and reign of God and long for it to come in our time and in our context.

I actually find this a really helpful anchor point in personal prayer. If I asked you to pray right now, you might tell me that it’s hard to get into the flow, that you could probably manage a minute or two max.

That’s quite normal to be honest.

But if you were able to consider all the corruption and evil in the world, all the things that concern you about the world and then all the things that are evil and corrupt in your own heart as part of your prayer life, I suspect we’d find a lot more time is taken in prayer.

Give us today our daily bread

Often, this part of the Lord’s prayer is taught as if the focus now shifts to our needs. I don’t think that’s true. I think the focus here in Jesus’ prayer example is still very much on God.

“Give us today our daily bread” is. prayer of submission to God – declaring our utter dependence on Him for today.

And, in the mind of a 1st Century hearer of these words, they would instantly recall the story of Isreal receiving mana from heaven and remember the moral conclusion of that story was to stop depending on self and rely wholly on God.

Perhaps, when we remember Jesus’ words “give us today our daily bread” it might be helpful to think something like this:

God – I want to rely on you today.

You’re my provider.

It’s not about me, my ability to solve problems and my skills. I’m not required to strive. Help me to rely on you.

Forgive us our debts

I think this portion of the Lord’s prayer sets our posture in prayer:

1. Remember what we owe God – what he spares us from in our mercy
2. Don’t approach God with an opposite heart towards those who owe us.

It’s again about glorifying God for the amazing grace he’s poured out on us and ensuring in our hearts as we pray that we’re not harbouring resentment towards others.

Lead us not…

Finally, Jesus reminds us that we have an enemy out there hell-bent on wrecking our intimacy with God.

Let me ask you:

• Do you set aside time to pray each day?
• Do you struggle with prayer?
• How’s your prayer life?
• Do you enjoy praying?

Wether it’s the world, our sin or the evil one (Satan), there’s all kinds of reasons not to pray.

Ironically, the most powerful weapon we have at our disposal to defeat the world, our sin and the devil is prayer.

Concluding with…

So, to wrap up, prayer isn’t a routine or ritual. It’s a moment of intentional intimacy with God where our focus is on Him, who He is and what He cares about.

It’s a chance to align with Him. A chance to bring everything to Him and be real with Him.

And it’s always a good idea to pair this with Bible reading as this creates a 2-way dialogue to prayer.