Prayer That Pleases God

Prayer is one of the most holy, intimate and personal activities that believers can engage in. It’s one of the most talked about and least practiced of the spiritual disciplines. Prayer is our lifeline to God and it is also a mystery. So simple a child can participate. We know what it is because it is simple – we cannot adequately explain it because it is complex. We cannot explain how it works, we just know it does.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus shows a better way, one that leads to freedom not slavery; joy not gloom; life not death. So far Jesus has dealt with the character of Christians (the beatitudes); and their influence (salt and light), and their heart attitude that affects their view of everything– from friendships to marriage to issues in the community and world. Next He deals with a Christian’s outward deeds. Matt. 5:21-48 was about what people believed. Matt. 6:1-18 is about what people do as a result of those beliefs. Jesus gives 3 examples of how someone’s faith could be expressed and how seeking the approval of others can block a life of consistent interaction with Him, leading to a life marked by hypocrisy. 3 acts very important to Jews were giving, praying and fasting; being generous to those in need, talking to God and being so focused on Him that you do without your food at the time you usually would eat it. In Matt. 6:2-4 Jesus deals with both the public and private aspects of giving. God wants us to use money to serve Him; fulfill the great command to love Him & the great commission to make disciples. With regard to giving resources away not keeping them for ourselves - we see what Jesus says about the motivation behind giving. Publicly: Don’t make a scene. Privately: don’t dwell on it. As Titus 3:14 says "people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful".

Jesus’ words on prayer in 6:5-8 are a study in contrasts. Jesus in 6:5-8 instructs His followers – He shows them and any who will listen, any who will buy in to His program, the purpose and nature of prayer that pleases God. He is showing the way and in effect saying, not that way, but this way. Here is how you can come to God in prayer. This is a preface to the Lord’s Prayer, aka the Disciple’s prayer; where Jesus shows us what to pray. Here He shows us how. For thinkers, questions arise: what kind of prayer pleases God? How can I pray that way? The answer is found in Jesus' words, where He states what His people are to do in contrast with the religious hypocrites and irreligious people who either pretend to or attempt to approach God.

Jesus 1st says something about the purpose of prayer. Why we pray. What prayer is for. He addresses a common error; a temptation for all who attempt to approach God in prayer. He uses the example of the scribes and the Pharisees; the primary group of hypocrites (fakers, actors, pretenders) being referred to here (cf. Matt. 23: 13, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29). Matthew 6:5 begins "When you pray". Like giving, it isn’t if but when you do so. If you are a Christian you will pray. Period. It is expected that you will pray – that you will want to talk with God. But religious hypocrites had made it something it was never intended to be – a way to get attention, to focus the spotlight upon themselves rather than upon God. Like with their giving to others, they made talking with God a way to be noticed. "When you pray" – Christians pray. It is expected assumed that we would fulfill the purpose of prayer and communicate with God, talk with Him, converse with Him, pour our hearts out to Him who knows our hearts. Live people breathe, dead people don’t; those alive in Christ pray.

And once again Jesus says, "don’t be like the hypocrites", the actors, the fakers, those who are more concerned with what they do than why they do it. "They love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners" – just like in their giving – among God’s people and out in the community they were show-offs. They get what they want and that’s all they will get. "They love to stand and pray" …not a bad thing to do BTW…but they did it for the wrong reasons – not to connect with God but to be seen. They have their reward in full – payment in full. They totally missed the purpose of prayer, which is to connect with God in a meaningful way, focused on "an audience of one", with pure motives. Matthew 6:6 says "But when you pray…go into your inner room". What does this mean? Are we all supposed to build a little room? Is your room 10x10, 4x3, or what? And it is supposed to have a door. Close the door. No, I don’t think that is what Jesus is saying. What does it mean to pray in secret? It means to be focused on God. It means to be undistracted by others or yourself. He is the One who sees you. Your Father who sees in secret will reward you with a knowledge of His presence, of Him having it all under control. Hypocrites engage in mere theatrics. Don’t do that says Jesus, instead, be honest with God, engage in sincere communication with Him. He sees your heart, He knows.

The 2nd thing Jesus focuses on is the nature of prayer. What true prayer is like. Again He contrasts His instructions with a common error, this time it is the prayer of unbelievers He points out. Where religious hypocrites know better, they do it out of ignorance. Jesus says Matthew 6:7 "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetitions". Don't babble on and on as the Gentiles do, "for they suppose they will be heard for their many words". Like the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel in 1 Kings 18. They cried out all day long "O Baal, answer us" and nothing happened. "There was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention" (1 Kings 18:29). They thought that their many words would have an affect on a false god; they didn't. But what about using many words with God?

What does it mean for believers not to babble on and on in prayer using many words? Does it mean we can't keep praying the same thing? No. Jesus did that in the garden of Gethsemane, praying "...not My will, but what You will". "And He went away and prayed, saying the same words" (Mark 14:39). What kind of going on and on is meant here? Any good Jew would daily pray the Shema (consisting of three short passages of Scripture: Deut. 6:4-9; 11:13-21; Numbers 15:37-41) every morning and evening. As early as you could, as soon as it was light enough to tell the difference between blue and white you'd pray it - but before 9 a.m. At night you had to say it before 9 p.m. To be sure many said it out of love and adoration of God; but surely there were others that just rattled through it to get through it. To check it off the list of things to do. We can do the same thing with our prayers, especially the Lord's Prayer; saying it without even thinking about what it means.

The whole idea of prayer assumes that one would use meaningful, personal communication that acknowledges God accurately. As Dallas Willard puts it "intelligent conversation about matters of mutual concern". Things like God’s sovereignty and His all-knowingness and His being ever-present ought to find their way into our thinking and flavor our prayers. We ought to engage in meaningful interaction with God that addresses our needs and recognizes His greatness. With regard to Matthew 6:5-8 John Stott said: “If the praying of the Pharisees was hypocritical and that of pagans was mechanical, then the praying of Christians must be real – sincere as opposed to hypocritical, thoughtful as opposed to mechanical. Jesus intends our minds and hearts to be involved in what we are saying. Then prayer is seen in its true light – not as meaningless repetition of words, nor as a means to our own glorification, but as a true communion with our heavenly Father.”

And because He knows all our needs, there are times that even before we call He answers us. Isaiah 65:24"It will also come to pass that before they call. I will answer them; and while they are still speaking, I will hear". How many times have you seen God do that? Give you an answer to prayer that you were going to pray? I have seen Him do that so many times in my life. He knows better than we do what we need. So when you pray, get to the point. Be brief. If you pray often alone, when you are called upon to pray in public it most likely will be brief. As D.L. Moody is known to have said "a man who prays much in private will make short prayers in public". Frederick Dale Bruner provides a significant insight into Matthew 6:7-8. He says “At first glance Jesus’ attack on quantitative prayer seems unsound pedagogy. When He discourages quantity in prayer is he not discouraging prayer itself? Here, too, however, in a spherical world the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line. The paradox of prayer is that only when it is relieved of the necessity of much will people experience the freedom for much. When disciples know they don’t have to pray much, they will, surprisingly, desire to pray more.” I love that. God frees us to approach Him freely, without a quota to fill. Matthew 6:8 "Do not be like them", strong words BTW, "for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him". Some will only engage in mere mechanics, but Jesus says, make it personal. God knows. He is intimately acquainted with all His children (those who have been saved by grace through Faith in Jesus Christ) and the process is under His care and watchful eye.

Let’s talk about God’s Part in the process. Why is it so important that we pray in the right way, in a way that pleases God? Because you may be able to fool some people but not God. As Matthew 6:6 and 6:8 remind us, God sees and knows. And because He sees and knows He rewards and meets our needs. Therefore He is the One we are to seek the attention of, not man. And we are instructed to be persistent, to not let up. Keep asking, keep praying. Matthew 7:7-11; James 5:13ff. God’s part is to see and know the need and meet them. Our Part is simply to humbly and honestly talk with our loving heavenly Father. When I was a kid if I needed something, if I didn’t know how to do something…I would just ask my dad! How to change the oil on my car, what to do in a certain situation. BTW, I still ask, one way we can honor our parents is to ask their advice. With prayer – pray like a child going to his father. Just ask Dad. Sincere, no theatrics, knowing He understands and knows.

This is where a word of caution is necessary. We must be careful when we approach God in prayer, we must, as all men and women entering into the marriage union are forewarned, it is not something to be entered into lightly or unadvisedly, but reverently and in the fear of Almighty God. Why? Because prayer, like marriage between a man and a woman, while being a gift from God and quite wonderful is also quite dangerous. The quagmire that we get into has everything to do with our desires and the condition of our hearts. As Eugene Peterson put it “We want life on our conditions, not God’s conditions. Praying puts us in risk of getting involved in God’s conditions. Be slow to pray. Praying most often doesn’t get us what we want but what God wants, something quite at variance with what we conceive to be our best interests. And when we realize what is going on, it is often too late to go back. Be slow to pray...Prayer is dangerous...Prayer is answering speech. The first word is God’s word. Prayer is a human word and is never the first word, never the primary word, never the initiating and shaping word simply because we are never first, never primary.”

Are we willing to put ourselves on the line and vulnerably enter into the danger zone? One writer has said, “Our modern church is filled with many people who look pure, sound pure, and are inwardly sick of themselves, their weaknesses, their frustration, and the lack of reality around them in the church. Our non-Christian friends feel either 'that bunch of nice untroubled people would never understand my problems;' or the more perceptive pagans who know us socially or professionally feel that we Christians are either grossly protected and ignorant about the human situation or are out-and-out hypocrites who will not confess the sins and weakness our pagan friends know intuitively to be universal.”

So the question remains, are we willing? At first glance the answer sometimes looks like no, but God can do in and through us what we can never dream of doing on our own. Prayer is all about acknowledging that we are dependent on what God provides and confident in what He can do. In Matthew 6:5-8 Jesus is essentially saying "do you want to live a life that pleases Me? It’ll show in the way you pray. How you express yourself to God and who you draw attention to in the process." Is your praying all about Jesus or all about you?