HOW NOT TO PRAY!

Matthew 6:5-8

No nation ever had a higher ideal of prayer than the Jews had. But certain faults crept into the Jewish habits of prayer. These faults can and do occur anywhere and they usually occur where prayer is taken very seriously. Jesus recognized these faults and taught He disciples first, how not to pray! Why? Because these are not the faults of neglect; they are the faults of a misguided prayer life. Jesus wanted to erase years of bad training and tradition and replace it with truth and sincerity things only He can provide! So, how did they become misguided and how have we become misguided in our prayer life?

1. Our prayers become routine.

There were two things every Jew had to do

every day.

The first was the Shema which consists of three short passages of scripture--Deut.6:4-9; Deut.11:13-21; Num.15:37-41."Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." The Shema had to be recited by every Jew every morning and every evening. No matter where a man found himself, at home, in the street, at work, in the synagogue, he must stop and say it. There were many who loved the Shema and who repeated it with reverence and adoration and love;

but there were still more who babbled their way through it, and went their way. The Shema become a vain repetition, which men mumbled through like some spell or incantation.

We Christians do the same, we rattle off our list of wants and desires never thinking about Who we're talking to.

The second thing every Jew must daily repeat was

the Shemoneh 'Esreh which means The Eighteen. It consisted of eighteen prayers. The Jew must recite it three times a day, once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening. The same thing happened again. The devout Jew prayed it with loving devotion; but there were many to whom these prayers became a formula. There was even a short version which a man might pray, if didn't have the time to repeat the whole eighteen. Again the repetition of the prayers became a thoughtless routine.

Again, we Christians do the same as we rush through our prayers never pausing a moment or taking the time to consider the Lord and His Will.

Because these Jewish prayers were prescribed by the law, prayers became a routine and slipped off the tongue with very little thoughtfulness.

This kind of danger is not confined to the Jews, even our own quiet times start out with loving devotion and sometimes end up becoming rigid, burdensome, time consuming, ritualistic routines.

It's a great thing that three times a day a man should remember God; but there is very real danger that it may become no more than three times a day a man babbles his prayers without a thought of God.

2. Our prayers become long.

Jewish prayers were often lengthy and wordy.

A Rabbi Levi said, "Whoever is long in prayer is heard." There is this idea that if men badgers God long enough he will answer; that God can be talked into or pestered, into giving us anything we want.

I know what your thinking "ask and it shall be given unto you"! What is "it"??? (Luke 11:1-13) Again we are stuck in the flesh and neglect the spirit!!

3. Our prayers become repetitious.

The Jewish peoples had a habit of hypnotizing themselves by the endless repetition of one phrase or even of one word. It was a kind of intoxication with words.

Do you have a "standard prayer", a "practiced" opening line and a "clever" closing word?

Are you speaking to the "King of Kings" or "the man upstairs"?

Do your prayers role off your tongue like a well rehearse speech?

Are you concerned about what other people are thinking about your prayer?

Are you in love with the sound of your own voice?

Jesus said, "go into your room, close the door and pray". Was Jesus condemning public prayer? NO!!

He was speaking of the importance of "going into" an attitude of prayer and "closing the door" to distractions. Jesus is talking about sincerity. Praying without pretense! Standing before God stripped of every disguise unhindered by whatever is going on around us! We should be able to pray freely and simply, focused on God!!

"When a man begins to think more of how he is praying than of what he is praying, his prayer dies on his lips."

In conclusion,

Jesus is saying this, that all true prayer must be offered to God. The real fault of the people was that they were praying to men and not to God.

Whether in public or in private prayer, a man should have no thought in his mind and no desire in his heart but God.

Jesus also wants us to remember that God is better prepared to answer our prayers than we are prepared to offer them, "your Father knows what you need"

God's gifts and grace do not have to be preyed out of His hands. We don't come to a God who has to be coaxed, pestered, or battered into answering our prayers. We come to a God whose one desire is to give. (John 3:16) If we can remember that one truth, then we can go to God in our prayers and say with confidence and sincerity "Thy will be done." 

by Bob Ray III, pastor of Hillside Baptist Church, Alvarado, TX