“And When You Pray”

People pray in many different ways. How do you pray? How did Jesus pray? What did Jesus say about prayer?

When you survey the wide variety of forms of Christianity, you find that there are many different practices and ideas about prayer. Consider:

Those who are Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox typically see prayer as the recitation of prewritten prayers. Roman Catholicism has hundreds of these prayers for people to recite in a variety of situations. Catholic and Orthodox traditions include the practice of praying to Mary, angels and saints as intercessors between God and man.

In general, the Protestant world is less liturgical about prayers. There are many different forms of praying in Protestantism—from emotional prayers spoken from the pulpits of churches to prayer groups that meet together to pray about specific issues.

There are also many people who frequently pray what is called “the Lord’s Prayer” found in Matthew 6:9-13. They believe that Jesus instructed His followers to pray this prayer verbatim.

But is this what Jesus Christ intended when He taught His disciples about prayer in the Sermon on the Mount? What did Jesus really teach about prayer?

“When you pray”

As we saw in the previous chapter, Jesus said, “When you pray” (Matthew 6:5), not “if you pray.” Prayer is designed as a means of communication to “draw near to God” (James 4:8)—to deepen our personal relationship with Him. In order to build a strong relationship with our Creator, we need to daily spend concentrated time praying to Him privately, one-on-one.

Jesus Christ didn’t just teach about this; it was a regular part of His life (Matthew 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12).

Pray to the Father

Jesus was very clear that our prayers are to be directed to God the Father: “Pray to your Father who is in the secret place” (Matthew 6:6). Now that Jesus Christ is in heaven as the Mediator between God and man, we pray “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20; 1 Timothy 2:5).

Jesus said we can ask the Father for anything in His name (John 14:13-14).

This is why we address our prayers to God the Father and often end them with a phrase like, “In Jesus Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.”

Pray from the heart

Jesus made another clear statement that is widely ignored: “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7).

Christ was referring to the pagan practice of recitation and chanting prayers based on the idea that repeating a prayer will bring favor from God (or the gods). This form of repeating or chanting prewritten prayers is practiced extensively in many churches.

God doesn’t want prewritten prayers to be repeated over and over. This does nothing to fulfill the basic purpose of prayer, which is to develop a close, personal relationship with God.

If you do a study of the many prayers recorded in the Bible, you will notice that they are distinct, personal and heartfelt communication between the individual and God. Here are a few prayers that are helpful to study:

• 1 Samuel 1:11; 2:1-10: Hannah’s prayer requesting a child and her prayer of thanksgiving to God after He provided her a son named Samuel.

• Psalm 51: David’s heartfelt prayer of repentance for his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah the Hittite.

• 2 Kings 19:15-19: King Hezekiah’s prayer for God to deliver Judah from being conquered by Assyria.

To learn more about how to pray real, meaningful prayers to God, read the article “Prayer From the Heart.”

Jesus Christ provides an outline for prayer

Then Jesus got more specific. He said, “In this manner, therefore, pray” (Matthew 6:9).

Essentially, Jesus was providing an outline to show the general structure and topics that should be included in our regular prayers to God. This outline would more accurately be called a model prayer.

It’s a model, or outline, of how we should pray to God. Each individual should fill in the details for himself or herself because God wants to hear genuine and heartfelt prayers—not recitations.

Let’s examine each of these categories.

“Our Father in heaven”

Although the Bible mentions many instances where Jesus was praying, only a few scriptures give us the words He used in specific prayers.

Jesus set us the example. Look at the beginning of the following prayers:

• Matthew 11:25: “At that time Jesus answered and said, ‘I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.’”

• John 11:41: “Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.’”

• John 12:27-28: “‘Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say?

“Father, save Me from this hour”? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.’”

• John 17:1-2: “Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.’”

Notice that Jesus begins by addressing His Father in heaven.

When we begin our personal prayers in like manner, we also recognize the deep relationship God desires to have with us. Those who are called and who respond to God’s calling can be, literally, children of God. That’s why we address Him as “our Father.”

“Hallowed be Your name”

To hallow God’s name means to honor it, to consider it sacred, to hold it in the highest regard and with very deep respect. Many of the Psalms show examples of how to praise and honor our great God.

Praising and thanking God for His goodness, blessings and kindness should be a regular component of our prayers.

“Your kingdom come”

We have the promise that God’s Kingdom will soon be established on the earth and that it will be ever-expanding.

As we see all the ills of this world, the debilitating diseases, upset weather, wars and political unrest all over the globe, we realize that only the Kingdom of God can give this world the true peace and security we yearn for.

Christ wants us to desire that Kingdom so much that we regularly pray to God about it! We should ask Him to send His Son soon, to take over this world’s governments and begin righting the many evils and wrongs of humanity.

“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven”

(Matthew 7:21).

We should study to learn what God’s will is and then strive to bring our own will into harmony with His. Then we can incorporate those concerns into our daily prayers.

This also reminds us that whenever we ask God for something specific, we should ask for it in the context of His will, not ours.

“Give us this day our daily bread”

Not only does this remind us that we need to ask for and thank God for food and other physical things on a regular basis, but it can also include praying for God’s help to feast on His Word on a daily basis. God wants us to realize that Bible study helps us get to know Him and that the spiritual food He gives us is paramount.

We are to view the Bible like food. It contains God’s inspired words that guide and sustain us through life. Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”

What debts do we owe? We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We all continue to sin, and we need to continue to seek forgiveness.

John emphasized the importance of specifically confessing our sins to God: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

But Jesus also ties our seeking God’s forgiveness to our extending forgiveness to others.

If we don’t forgive the sins that we think others have committed against us, we have no chance at being forgiven ourselves. Jesus Christ said, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15).

Satan the devil is the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10) and the evil one. He is very clever, abounds in subtlety and hates those who love God. He will never give up in his vicious attempts to separate us from our Heavenly Father through temptation and sin.

But the all-powerful God can deliver us if we seek His help and draw close to Him (James 4:7-8).

We should regularly pray that God will remove temptations from us and strengthen us against the attacks of “the evil one.”

“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” After His resurrection, Jesus spoke with His disciples for 40 days. They asked Him during that time if He was going to “restore the kingdom” then (Acts 1:6).

One of the things Jesus will do upon His return to the earth is to establish the Kingdom of God, and all the other kingdoms will be no more (1 Corinthians 15:24). What a glorious event that will be!

As Jesus would say later in this sermon, we should “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33). That is demonstrated in Jesus’ teaching us to pray about that coming Kingdom at the beginning and end of our prayers.

It should regularly be on our mind and in our prayers.

“Amen”

The Gospels, almost all of the epistles (James and 3 John are the exceptions) and the book of Revelation all close with “Amen.”

Saying “Amen” means that we certify that what went before is true. In essence, we are saying, “So be it.”

Jesus indicated in Matthew 6 that we should begin our prayers by addressing our Heavenly Father and close them with “Amen.” We also have the incredible privilege to add, “In Jesus’ name” before we close (John 14:13-14).

Pray your own words!

The above amplification of the phrases that Jesus spoke to His disciples is definitely not meant to be our exact script as we offer our daily prayers.

As we add our elaboration, avoiding the vain (ineffective, unproductive and futile) repetitions Jesus mentioned, we’ll begin to develop a closer relationship with our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ.