Maybe you have been “keeping score” and maybe you have not, but over the past several months this column has been considering the topic of prayer as Jesus taught. And, in these brief exhortations we have found that we are called to pray with developed guards upon our hearts and minds. For instance, we learned that we are to pray with humility, for the Master commanded in Matthew 6:5, “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. According to the Savior, such people “have received their reward,” and so their prayers avail nothing.
Intimacy in prayer is another command of Jesus that has commanded our attention. Our Lord put prayer into the context of a close and personal conversation as He declared, “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” (Matthew 6:6) The effective prayer that Jesus taught included a place of privacy (remember He would go into desolate places to pray! Mark 1:35) and a prayer that was personal…as between a child and his father. This is intimate prayer that is being taught.
But intimacy does not mean a hidden agenda or purpose. No, not at all. The followers of Jesus are told that such humble and intimate prayer works alongside an eager anticipation of God’s working in and through that prayer. The very Son of God said, in relation to praying in this manner, “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Jesus depended on prayer during His earthly sojourn. In response to His disciples request, He taught them these principles regarding prayer. Prayer is central to a believer’s life. So Jesus gives those who will listen to His truth warnings, and an example regarding prayer as He continues in Matthew 6. And, in addition to the humility, intimacy and eager expectation, the Lord tells us to pray with simplicity: “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” (Matthew 6:7) Using a negative example as an illustration, Jesus speaks against so-called prayer that is made up of meaningless repetitions, patterned after those of pagan religions.
Perhaps you recall the prophets of the idol Baal in the Old Testament. In their “contest” with Elijah on Mt. Carmel, the pagan prophets called on the name of Baal from morning until noon saying, ‘O Baal, answer us,’ and they they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, which was early evening (1 Kings 18:26, 29). Hour after hour they repeated their phrases, trying by the very quantity of their words to make their god hear and respond, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.
It was (and is) typical of pagan prayers to repeat the names of their gods and goddesses or use the same words over and over without actually thinking about what they were saying! In fact, such mindless repetition in the name of “worship” allowed for a two-hour chant in Acts 19:34!
Through the centuries the Jews had been influenced by such pagan practices. They often added adjective after adjective before God’s name in their prayers, apparently trying to outdo one another in mentioning His divine attributes or ascribing titles to Him. This is precisely what Jesus is prohibiting! There is nothing worthy of God’s glory to be found in mindless, mechanical repetition, rather than the earnest repetition that flows from a truly worshipping or imploring heart. Jesus is teaching that the effectiveness of prayer is to be found in Whom the prayer is directed toward, and the condition of the heart that utters the prayer.
But men love to think that they, somehow, can augment their prayers by what they add to the equation. Commenting on this, A. W. Tozer once remarked, “Even the most devout seem to think they must storm heaven with loud outcries and mighty bellowings or their prayers are of no avail!” But the reality of what Jesus is teaching regarding the simplicity of God-honoring and God-honored prayer may be captured in the words of John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress. He wrote, “In prayer it is better to have a heart without words, than words without a heart.”
Certainly Jesus is not forbidding all long prayers or any possible use of repetition. He himself prayed at length (Luke 6:12), repeated himself in prayer (Matthew 26:44), and told a parable to show His disciples that “that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). The point the Master makes is that His disciples should avoid meaningless, repetitive prayers offered under the misconception that mere length or repeated words will make prayers effective. Jesus is teaching us how to pray to God as our Father through faith, and the personal Father God to whom believers pray does not require information about their needs (v.8), not does He need to be “bribed” with a symphony of words in order to be interested in caring for His children. Just as a godly father on earth knows the needs of his family, yet teaches them to ask of him in confidence and trust, so does God treat and teach His children.
Earthly and empty religion invariably carries many outward trappings (clerical garments and vestments, ornate vessels, involved rituals, etc.). Among those trappings one will often find repetitious prayers, cited by rote and offered at prescribed times OR “spontaneous” prayers that are wordy, ostentatious and self-glorifying. Essentially it is thoroughly pagan, for pagan gods may thrive on incantation and repetition, but the Son of the living God has commanded against it!
The simplicity of prayer taught by Jesus involves more than just the avoidance of repetition as it also extends to the language used to pray. The Bible records no instance of believers speaking to God in anything but normal, intelligible language. Even in Jesus’ great high priestly prayer (John 17), in which the Son poured out His heart to the Father, when God communed with God before watchful men, the language is remarkably simple and clear. The point is this: In prayer, be yourself. Be natural before God. Do not pretend to emotions you do not feel. Tell Him whatever is on your heart and mind with whatever words are most natural to you. You do not have to speak to him in “religious” language about “spiritual” matters only. Speak as naturally and as easily as you would to a friend…or better yet, to a loving father, since God is just that.
Along these lines Dorothy Sayers is credited with writing the following. “A logical fallacy attends all ingenious proposals to ‘test the efficacy of prayer’ by (for example) praying for the patients in Ward A of a hospital and leaving Ward B unprayed for, in order to see which set recovers. Prayer undertaken in that spirit is not prayer at all, and it requires a singular naiveté to imagine that Omniscience could be so easily bamboozled.”
She is correct. God is not bamboozled…nor flimflammed, caught off guard, scammed or tricked by the ways and means of men’s prayers. He knows the reality of the situation, and He knows the reality of the heart that comes to Him. Let us come to Him in faithful simplicity.
Posted on May 1st, 2010 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: From the Pastor’s Pen