Real Prayer

Read Matthew 6:5–15

For real prayer there must be a proper attitude. Jesus gave us the best example. He gave us a pattern for real prayer.

Jesus now spoke about prayer. It is still the most important duty of a disciple. The Pharisees believed that it was important. This was correct. But, their attitude was wrong. People must see them when they were praying. So, they were not really praying to God. They were like actors. The two examples that Jesus gave showed this. He was really saying the same as he was in the last section. These kinds of prayers were to please people. And people would think that they were good prayers (Matthew 6:5). But that is not real prayer. When we pray, we should want only to please God.

Jesus spoke about other false prayers in Matthew 6:7–8. Many religious people think that prayer is like magic. So, the more that they pray, the more it will work. Because of this belief, some people use things to help them. They may use prayer wheels. They may count little stones that are on a string. People can even use The Lord’s Prayer like this. (Note: This is the prayer that Jesus taught. See below.) It is easy just to repeat the words. But this is not real prayer. Other people try to impress God. So, they use special words.

But we should really mean what we pray. Jesus emphasised that. People sometimes think that they must repeat the same words continuously. Then they can be sure that God knows their needs. But this is not necessary. The God to whom we pray loves us. He is always ready to answer our prayers. Often, people just do not ask!

The prayer that is a model (Matthew 6:9–15)

In this section, Jesus gave us two things. First, he gave us a form of prayer. Then he gave us an example to follow. (Read Matthew 6:9–13.) It is a short prayer. But, it is a complete prayer. It includes everything. It is called The Lord’s Prayer.

• Our Father

The word that Jesus used for ‘Father’ here is important. It was the word ‘Abba’. This is in the Aramaic language. It is still the most familiar form of the word. A child uses it to his father. It points to the fact that God is near to us. It shows that he loves and cares about his children. They are part of his family. The Bible speaks about God as the Father of all people. (Read Malachi 2:10 and Psalm 36:6.) But in this passage, only the real disciple can pray like this.

• in heaven

This does not refer to where God lives. It is about God’s power. It refers to his rule over all things. God can do whatever he wants. God is our Father in heaven. This increases the confidence of real disciples.

God is also the ruler who has all authority and power. This should cause the disciple to have the right reactions. The reactions must include two things. First, there should be humble confidence. Then there should be great respect.

The rest of Jesus’ prayer includes 7 requests. There are 3 for God’s glory (honour). Then, there are 4 for our personal needs.

• We want people to give honour to your name.

In the Bible, the ‘name’ of a person is special. It refers to all that he or she is like. To give ‘honour’ includes humble trust. So, the person wants all people to give honour to God. This includes the person who makes the request.

• We want your kingdom to come.

Jesus clearly referred to his own great acts. (Read Matthew 12:28.) He said that these acts showed something. It was this. ‘The kingdom of God has come to you.’ Here, the disciple prays that God’s kingdom will come. He asks God to establish the authority of Jesus in his own life. He wants God to establish his salvation in all his people. He also asks that Jesus’ authority will be total. He wants this to happen soon. (Note: ‘He’ refers to both he and she.)

So, the disciple wants God to establish his kingdom now. But, there is more in this request. It includes the future ages too. (Read Revelation 22:20.) Every real believer (Christian) will meet God some day. God will complete all his promises. The real believer should desire this time very much. Then, ‘He (God) will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death. Nobody will be sad. So, nobody will cry. There will be no more pain.’ (Read Revelation 21:4.) Each believer should desire the great time that is coming.

• We want everyone to do your will on earth as everyone does it in heaven.

In heaven, the angels worship God. They praise him. They are ready to do his will. This request is that people on earth should do the same. They should always obey God. They should obey him completely. They should obey him gladly. They should obey him immediately. This is what always happens in heaven.

• Give us our daily bread today.

We all have physical needs. God cares about the daily things that we need. He cares about them just as much as he cares about great matters. The word ‘bread’ probably refers to things that are necessary in life. God is not thinking of extra things that we do not need.

• Forgive the sins that we have done; the same as we forgive the people who have sinned against us.

Jesus knows that everyone needs God to forgive him or her. This is because of failure and sin. In this prayer we are asking for God’s mercy. We fail daily. So, every real disciple must often make this request. But there is something else. A person may claim to be a disciple. If so, that person must forgive other people. Someone may refuse to do this. If so, he or she cannot know that God has forgiven him or her.

This request is important. So, Jesus explained more about it after the prayer. (Read Matthew 6:14–15.)

• Do not lead us into the place of temptation.

(This is the word for when someone tempts us. That person tries to make us think or do something wrong. We feel the urge or desire for it too.) Temptation itself is not a sin. But it tests us about how strong we are. And it tests us about how loyal we are. It tests whether we can serve God too.

• But keep us safe from the evil one (the devil)

Read Matthew 4:1–11. There is always some danger in temptation. This is because it comes from the devil. So, a disciple should try to avoid it as much as possible. Temptation begins in the mind. So the disciple will refuse to look at or think about something that is wrong. This was what Jesus taught.

Some versions of the Bible include some more words.

• The kingdom, the power and the glory are yours for ever; Amen (we want it to be like that).

(‘For ever’ means for all of time, and after time ends.) It seems that these words were not in the book of Matthew at first. It was usual for the Jews to end a prayer with words of worship. Then they started to use Jesus’ prayer. They probably added these words at that time. They seem to come from some passages in the OT. The passages are 1 Chronicles 29:11; Nehemiah 9:5 and Psalms 145–150.

This prayer is complete. It includes everything.

It includes references to:

• God’s glory (the first 3 requests)
• things that we need (the last 4 requests)
• physical needs (request 4)
• spiritual needs (requests 5, 6 and 7)
• present, past and future needs (requests 4, 5 and 6)
• other people’s needs. (Notice the words ‘our’ and ‘us’.)

Jesus included all of these things in 7 brief requests. This is a perfect model for our prayers.

Questions

• Think about the times when you pray this prayer. Do you really want God to answer you? If God does answer your requests, what changes will need to happen?
• Think about public prayer in our churches. It is easy just to repeat prayers together. Or, it can be just one person’s prayer. How can they become real prayers of the whole group?
• The people of a church should make a difference in the world. Prayer should be the way to do this. But only a few people go to meetings that are for prayer. Why does this happen?

More explanation

Determination to continue with prayer

Our intention to continue with prayer should be firm. God approves of this. The Bible teaches it. Jesus agreed with it too. He prayed all night sometimes. (Read Matthew 14:2–25.) Paul said that we should pray ‘all the time’. (Read Romans 12:12 and 1 Thessalonians 5:17.) Jesus spoke about this kind of prayer too. (Read Luke 11:5–13; Luke 18:1–8.)

But, Jesus forbade a certain attitude to prayer. It was about the form and the length of prayer. Some people still use these things. By them, they decide how spiritual a person is. But it is not right to do this.