Matthew 6:5-8

5 “Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward! 6 But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 When you pray, don’t babble like the idolaters, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words.

8 Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him.

When to pray?

“There is no point in talking about the proper way to prayif you don’t first have an answer for when you pray.” – Matthew Tarpley

Jesus “presupposes His disciples will be a people of prayer”. “Whenever” indicates the expectation of not only participation but of a consistent and continuing prayer life. Too often we hear the thing we ought to do and begin, only to soon abandon it because we do not see INSTANT success or fruit. In Luke 18, He tells his disciples “a parable on the need for them to pray always and not become discouraged” (Luke 18:1).

“No man is greater than his prayer life.  The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.” – Leonard Ravenhill

“David Brainerd lived in the 18th century and was commissioned to reach the Native Americans, primarily the Delaware Indian tribe in New Jersey. He would preach through a drunken interpreter, day after day. He knew that his preaching alone wasn’t going to break through the hard hearts of his hearers, so each night, he would give himself to agonizing intercessory prayer. He would bow down to pray in snow that went up to his nose and cry out to God in the silent, dark, lonely night until he knew he had prayed through the victory. When the morning came, the snow would be melted around him, and he would be covered in his blood, as his tuberculosis has caused him to cough in between his fervent prayers. When he would rise from that muddy, bloody, slushy pit of prayer, he would go back to the village to preach and see the multitudes convert to Christ!” He died at age 28 but changed missions across the world, especially with Native Americans. “Though he was young in age and weak in body, he was mighty in prayer.” We as Christians shouldn’t just believe in the power of prayer, we are to believe in the necessity of prayer.

Why pray?

 “Prayer allows us to worship and praise the Lord. It also allows us to offer confession of our sins, which should lead to our genuine repentance. Moreover, prayer grants us the opportunity to present our requests to God. All of these aspects of prayer involve communication with our Creator. He is personal, cares for us, and wants to commune with us through prayer.- Focus on the Family

“Prayer sustains us in communion with Christ, and it renews us with joy in times of thanksgiving, and it heals us in times of lament.” -M. Tarpley  The first instance of prayer happens in chapter 4 of Genesis – v26 “A son was born to Seth also, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of Yahweh.” The communion with God was broken because of sin. We see His creation call on His name. God’s creation still calls on His name.

“As we look at prayers throughout the Bible, it becomes increasingly apparent that they are dominated by this single concern: to see God act to fulfill his promises as He advances His plan of redemption in our world. That’s not to say, of course, that our relationship with God can be reduced to this one thing. There are lots of activities that we are invited or commanded to engage in as part of our relationship with God (like praise, or repentance, or intercession, or lament, or thanks).”

Where and How to pray?

Matthew 6:5-6

5 “Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward! 6 But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

The secret of praying is praying in secret. A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning. – L. Ravenhill

In private
Jesus would rise early and quietly go to a place of solitude. We need to understand and value the quiet places, not that God only resides there but that interruptions will be less common there. Know that we live in the age of distraction! Help yourself! Follow the example set by our Lord! Mark 1:35 – Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He got up, went out, and made His way to a deserted place. And He was praying there.

In public
There is a time and place for public prayer. Jesus prayed with his disciples and showed them how to pray. By including the phrase “Our Father”, Jesus is indicating that group/public prayer is good and expected. The early days of the church are full of public prayers. Acts 3:1 – Now Peter and John were going up together to the temple complex at the hour of prayer at three in the afternoon.
“Jesus is not telling us to avoid praying in public in all circumstances. He is saying that we should have the right motives (to be concerned with the audience of One) when we pray in public.” -M. Tarpley

Matthew 6:9-10
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

“By commanding His disciples to pray like this rather than simply to “pray this”, Jesus demonstrated that this prayer was offered as a model rather than a mantra to be recited.”
– HCSB

What to pray?

Matthew 6:9-10
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

“The petition asks that disciples submit more fully to God’s will as subjects of His reign through Jesus. We should daily pray for the future consummation of God’s rule in which He will reign fully and completely over the world.”
– HCSB

Jesus’ prayer in the Garden is punctuated with His crying out to the Father but the ending phrase resounds in the minds and hearts of believers, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22)

“God does not need your prayers to accomplish His will, but God does not want to accomplish His will without your prayers. He wants you to be a part of His plan.” – M. Tarpley

Does prayer change things or does it change us?

Philippians 4:6-7
6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

““So our advances in communications demand that we worry about”…every issue that the world offers! “Then of course we can add in the regular parade of pressures: car troubles, conflict with colleagues at work, impending exams and the expectations that family and friends impose, competition at work, a degenerating family, an arid marriage, a rebellious teenager, bereavement, financial insecurity. Pressures mount and surround us and bully us, until even the Christian who hears the injunction of this passage (“Do not be anxious about anything”) smiles half bitterly and mutters, “You don’t understand; it can’t be done. But of course, it can be done. Part of our problem is that we hear this command not to worry—and we smile piously, grit our teeth, resolve not to worry, and promptly begin to worry about not worrying. What we overlook is that Scripture here tells us how to overcome our anxieties. “Do not be anxious about anything” is not a naked prohibition; the alternative is immediately provided: “but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (4:6).”

We become so consumed with the “thing” we are concerned, worried, or anxious about that we miss out on the action we need to take and the goodness that comes! “Christians who come before the Father in regular prayer discover that Peter is right: “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). J. A. Bengel was right to insist that anxiety and genuine prayer are more opposed to each other than fire and water. I have yet to meet a chronic worrier who enjoys an excellent prayer life.”

(4:7) And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

“This is not some easily analyzed bit of clever psychology. At the end of the day, it is supernatural and “transcends all understanding.” God’s peace stabilizes us, guards us, suffusing us with the joy of the Lord. Christians delight in trusting Him.” -DA Carson

Does prayer change things or does it change us?

“We do not lift up these petitions to God because He is unaware of them; we pray like this because this is the way our Father has designed for us to stay in relationship with Him. His will is accomplished through prayer. This is how the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man lock arms for our good and His glory.” – M. Tarpley

Questions

1. What is your prayer life like? Do you have a consistent and continuing prayer life? If not, what keeps you from praying regularly? How can you incorporate prayer into your day? “We will not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray.” Do you have a prayer plan? What might that look like for you?

2. How much thought do you put into your prayers? Do you find yourself going back to common refrains or non-specific topics when talking to God? How will you improve your prayer life?

3. How does prayer affect you? (including your praying and your hearing others pray)

4. When was the last time you prayed explicitly and at length over the things that worry you, trouble you, plague you? Did you take them out and recount them to God, one by one, laying your burdens on Him?

5. What are the different reasons we pray to God? Do you limit our prayers by only going to God for certain reasons?

6. Did you grow up knowing the Lord’s Prayer? Was it something you simply recited out of memory or did it have meaning for you? Explain.

7. Why do we tend to put our priorities over God’s when we pray? What are some ways we can make our priorities the same as Gods?

8. What should we do when we don’t know what to say to God? How does the Holy Spirit help in these situations?