Day 4: Matthew 6:5-8

Read Matthew 6:5-8

Helpful Background Information: 

• In our text for this Thursday, we find Jesus instructing his disciples on how to pray. His emphasis is on private, short, and heartfelt prayer. 

• Jesus’s insistence on private prayer was a criticism against the Jews in his day, who would pray publicly to gain favor with men. However, this goes against the very nature of prayer. Prayer is about communion with the Father, humbly giving him praise, petition, and thanksgiving. Once we start to pray about ourselves, we are showing terrible pride. However, Jesus is not forbidding public prayer, but he is attacking prayers made to give yourself glory instead of the Father. 

• His prohibition against “heaping up empty words” or “babbling” likewise attacks prideful prayer.  Back then, people outside the Jewish faith often used long, repeated chants or magical phrases, thinking that just saying the right words over and over was what mattered, not what was in their heart or what they truly meant. However, Jesus is not saying that we cannot have lengthy prayers, but the sinful attitude that thinks that if our prayers are long enough and just right, then God will be more willing to answer. But the sweet truth of the Bible is that God hears our prayers and answers them, not because of how well we say them or how long they are, but because he delights in our faith (See 1 John 5:14-15) 

• Returning to Mark 1:35, we see that Jesus prioritized spending time with his Father in prayer, perhaps sacrificing some much-needed sleep to do so. Jesus gave an example of his teaching. We can be sure that Jesus' praying privately was not done to give himself glory, but to give it all to the Father. His heart was utterly dependent on God’s faithfulness and control. We can be sure that not one word of Jesus’ prayer was “empty” or “babbling” to get a response out of God, but in faith: he expected the Father to meet his every need. 

Reflection Questions: 

• What motivates you when you pray? Do you ever find yourself trying to “say the right words” or “sound spiritual” in hopes that God (or others) will be more impressed? Is it more about connecting with God, or are you sometimes concerned with how it appears to others? If so, how can you make your heart more focused on the Lord? 

• What does it mean to you that God hears your prayers because of your faith, not your eloquence? How does that change the way you approach Him?