When thou prayest

While the Lord’s teaching in these verses covers the three themes of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting there is one lesson common to each: namely that our life is to be lived as unto God and not as unto men. Yet how easy it is to be more concerned with how we appear unto men rather than with pleasing God, and gaining the praise of men rather than the approval of God.

Three times in today’s passage the Lord says ‘when [thou] prayest’, not ‘if thou prayest’, it being assumed that every true believer will be thus exercised to call upon God. Is it something that is characteristic of us? The teaching on prayer is divided into two sections:firstly,how not to pray; secondly,how to pray. We are not to pray as the hypocrites, men guilty of insincerity. The Lord is not condemning praying in public, for the Bible has many examples of godly men who prayed thus, men such as Solomon and Ezra. What the Lord condemns is the hypocrites’ motive, praying ‘that they may be seen of men’. Instead of seeking the most public place the disciple is to seek the most private place - ‘thy closet’. Again, they were not to pray as the heathen men, condemned for their ignorance. They think God is unaware of their needs, reluctant to hear their requests, and this can be overcome only by prayer being reduced to a kind of repetitive incantation. Instead of praying with a view to informing God as the heathen do, the believer prays with a spirit dependent upon God, conscious that He knows what things we have need of even before we ask. In verses 9 to 15 the Lord shows how to pray. This ‘pattern’ prayer is a model of brevity, yet embraced within it there is praise of God, desire for the fulfilment of divine purpose, and petition for daily needs. At the heart of the prayer is a personal relationship, the privilege of knowing God as ‘Father’. Next, is reverence, the focus in the opening statements being on God’s interests and glory, His Name, kingdom, and will. Then four requests for personal needs are made, these petitions reflecting the Father’s interest in the material and spiritual needs of His children, and a concern for their preservation and protection. May we heed the Lord’s instruction and exhortation, and ‘after this manner’ pray.