When I Pray Am I Like the Hypocrite?

And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by other. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentlies do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Matthew 6:5-8

I heard about Bill Moyers, who was on President Lyndon Johnson’s staff.  One day, he was asked to say the blessing on a meal in the White House.  As he quietly prayed to the Lord, he was interrupted by President Johnson who said, Speak up Bill, I can’t hear what you are saying.”  Bill Moyers replied, “I wasn’t speaking to you, Mr. President.”  That is the essence of prayer!  It is not about impressing men; it is about communing with the Lord.

Any time you get into any discussion of prayer, you get into a certain area of difficulty. It's hard to completely comprehend how prayer functions. On the one hand, you have the view which says that God is sovereign and so God's going to do whatever He's going to do whether you pray or don't pray. On the other hand, you have another view which says that God pretty well doesn't do anything unless somebody prays.

Prayer was a major issue among Jews. Prayer was a tremendous central factor in their religion. They were highly involved in praying. In fact, the rabbis said, "great is prayer greater than all good works." The rabbis also said, "he who prays within his house surrounds it with a wall that is stronger than iron." The rabbis regretted that they couldn't pray all day long. Now no nation has ever had a higher ideal of prayer than Israel. No religion ever set a greater standard of prayer than the Hebrew people. They really had a priority place for prayer.

But in the due course of time, their prayer became ritualized. They were functioning in their prayers only in terms of a ritual. The ritual approach to prayer replaced the reality of a poured out heart.

All throughout the Gospel portion, we see that prayer had an important place in Jesus’ life. And it wasn’t just a ritual that Jesus was following.

Jesus wants to deal with that here. The motive of our prayers. We may never unscramble all the mystery of prayer, but we can certainly deal with the issue of the motive as the Lord does here.

What our Lord is dealing with is this, in your prayers, make sure you're communing with God, not performing for men. It didn't matter that there was an audience, because he wasn't talking to the audience. That's the point. He was talking honestly to God.

Daniel prayed with his windows open, but he talked to God. Jesus said the temple was the house of prayer and masses of people came there, but they were to talk to God, not to each other. In fact, Jesus even said when you pray, pray our Father and our is a plural pronoun that demands a plurality of people praying. There's nothing wrong with community praying, as long as the heart is pure.

So what is prayer then? If we're not informing God and if we're not really letting Him know things, what is prayer? I'll tell you what it is.

Prayer more than anything else is sharing the needs and the burdens and the hunger of our heart with the God who cares. In simple terms it's communion. It isn't getting things. It isn't forcing God to do something. It is just opening my soul to one who cares and that communes with me. As Luther said, "prayer is much more God instructing us than ever is it God being instructed by us."

In conclusion, what is God asking us? What is Jesus saying? He is saying when you pray, first of all, pray with a devout heart. That is a pure motive seeking only the glory of God. Secondly, a humble heart seeking only the attention of God, not men. Thirdly, a confident heart knowing full well that God already knows all that you need and with childlike simplicity in faith, you simply take your heart to Him and await the majestic display of His glorious response.

This Lenten Season let us develop our private, personal prayer life, until it is everything God would have it to be.