Matthew 6:5-14
Progressive Relationship Requesting Desires Matthew 6:5-14 1| Prayer in General | Matthew 6:5-14 As a sophomore in high school, I struggled with Christianity. My teenage battle was not about information or understanding but commitment and a sense of reality. I was conflicted by the pull of the world, which was really about doing my own thing against the call of Christ. One day during my lunch hour, I slipped across the street to the church. I was alone in a Sunday school classroom without the stimulus of gospel music or the emotion of an appealing altar call. The challenge was simple. Either Christianity works, or it does not. Either the presence of Jesus is real, or He is not. In complete commitment to Jesus, I dared Him to be real in my life, or I was going to look elsewhere for my life’s purpose. I saw no lightning bolts or felt any strong emotions, which may have been a part of my problem. I had been looking for such a manifestation. As I made my way back to the high school, I did not feel any different. However, for months something or Someone began to happen within me! I had a growing awareness that Jesus Himself, the real person of Jesus, was living within my flesh. Another person besides myself had come to live within my body. Jesus’ Spirit merged with my life. His mind and my mind, His heart and my heart, His emotions and my emotions became one. In this merger, I became aware of the possibility of what I later called “saturation.” I could saturate in His presence all the time. I could live in a “God-awareness.” I could be in constant communication with the Lover of my soul. It became the norm for me to walk the halls of the high school, aware of His presence. In my mind, I called Jesus front and center for every problem. The consistent sharing of every life experience became my constant delight. The challenge of changing from “I” language to “we” language was essential because this new creature is not “I” and “Him” but “us!” Jesus brought to my attention a little book entitled “Practicing His Presence.” The author, Brother Lawrence, was a monk in a monastery whose responsibility it was to work in the kitchen. He wrote to a friend that his superiors required much time praying at the altar, but he found no difference between the altar and the kitchen. Communication with Jesus was the same in both places. Paul proclaimed, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). The Greek word “adialeiptos,” translated “without ceasing,” is an adverb describing and giving content to the imperative verb, “Pray.” “Without ceasing” means “unremittingly, incessantly, permanently, continually, without intermission.” Prayer is the atmosphere in which the merger between man and God occurs, a communication level and state of existence of the “new creature.” The Greek word translated “pray” used by Paul is “proseuchomai,” the same Greek word Jesus used in our passage. Jesus used this word six times in these verses, forcibly stating His subject and intent. In the Gospel accounts, the writers never record the disciples as “praying” (proseuchomai). In Luke’s record of our passage (Matthew 6:5-12), he writes that Jesus is answering a request from the disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1). The disciples saw Jesus “praying” but had no idea how to enter into such an experience. They were Jews and were required to participate in prayer times, but Jesus’ prayers were strangely different from what they knew in the Old Covenant. Jesus presented them with something entirely different in the New Covenant. Recognizing the difference, the disciples requested instructions. To understand this prayer difference, we return to the premise of the Sermon on the Mount. Although there was a large crowd listening to Jesus’ instructions, He was focused explicitly on His disciples (Matthew 5:1-2). These disciples needed to understand what they must embrace as a disciple of Jesus. All they knew in the Old Covenant Jesus will now fulfill in the New Covenant. What happened in Jesus through the fullness of the Spirit was now available to them. Jesus applied the fullness of His Spirit to all aspects of religion (Matthew 6). Their relationship with others (charitable deeds), their communication with God (prayer), various aspects of spiritual disciplines (fasting), and the level of commitment and focus of their lives (seeking first the Kingdom) all change in the New Covenant. Jesus presented His premise in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12). Our condition is one of poverty (Matthew 5:3). The inner condition of our spirit is helplessness with no resource for life! We must embrace this condition and allow God to embrace us. As grief overwhelms us, we must dwell in the state of helplessness (Matthew 5:4). When we live within the boundaries of our helplessness, this posture allows God to merge with us. Our helpless nature and His resourceful nature creates a new creature call the “Kingdom person.” All the remaining Beatitudes spring forth from this merger. What will this merger do to the communication between man and God? The “Big Man upstairs” is gone. As the “Father” replaces the fear of Mount Sinai’s God coming down in lightning and thunder, God does not diminish His power and resource as we embrace His heart. The spiritual reality of prayer transforms from specific times of day to continual communication. Instead of trying to impress God with good words, we speak as a bride and bridegroom in the night hours. We no longer demand what we think we need; our heart’s cry is for His will and direction. We replace the fleshly things of the world that once dominated our prayer requests with the desire to know His heart. In the merger, we practice His presence! Jesus applied a new level of intimacy, the merger of His nature, to the religious activity of prayer (Matthew 6:5-15). Concentration of Prayer “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:5-6). In our previous study, Matthew applied the resounding truth to the religious aspect of charitable deeds, and in our present passage, he applies that truth to the element of prayer. Jesus used the Greek word “proseuchomai,” a combination of the preposition “to” (pro) and “euchomai,” meaning “to which or to pray.” The prefix “pro” is unnecessary because “euchomai” expresses the idea of praying. However, in the New Testament, the compound verb almost supplants the simple verb “euchomai” in designating “to pray,” which embraces everything in the prayer idea. Prayer is a general term proposing all aspects of communication with God. Although there is a specific Greek word translated as “worship,” it is also contained in the idea of “pray.” “Prayer” is devotional. Jesus had a specific reason for moving into the temple. In the last week of His earthly life, He needed to set things straight and restore the temple’s focus and purpose. “Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves” (Matthew 21:12). What an undertaking this was! The outer porch surrounded the temple structure and contained the money changers, wares for sale, and animals for sacrifice. The temple police and hundreds of people were present, but no one dared to stop Jesus. When the cleansing was complete, Jesus addressed the crowd with an explanation for His actions. “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer (proseuchomai),’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves’” (Matthew 21:13). Prayer was the only activity allowed in the temple. Was Jesus advocating they were no longer going to offer sacrifices in the temple? Were the Israelite men chanting the Psalms a violation of God’s desires? Was the fellowship gathering of the people no longer acceptable to God? God had established the temple for all these reasons, which included what Jesus called “prayer.” God’s people were not to isolate “prayer” to an activity! Prayer is not the act of getting on one’s knees and addressing some deity who may or may not care or be listening. Prayer expresses the intimacy of the merger between God and man, the fullness of Jesus’ Spirit. We must label all aspects of that intimacy as “Pray.” Paul said, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you” (1 Corinthians 3:16)? I have been a temple filled with financial gain, lustful thoughts, selfish ambitions, and willful defiance. Does Jesus want to cleanse me and fill me with Himself? Would this not mean that no activity is allowed within my life that is not “prayer”? Communication with God’s nature and my merger with His Spirit must be the core of all my involvements. Therefore, the critical element making an activity of “prayer” is the interaction of that activity with God. If prayer is to be “without ceasing,” would not the total expression of the “new creature” be prayer? If the new creature lives in a consistent God-awareness, would not all his activities be prayer? That is why the prefix to the Greek word “proseuchomai” is so important. Prayer is not “wishing” or “expressing desires.” Prayer always concentrates on and involves God! It is the interaction of man and God in the merger, forming the new creature. Nothing is to take place within the human life that the nature of God does not provide for and in which He is not intimately involved. That is why Jesus instructed His disciples, “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites” (Matthew 6:5). The hypocrite appears one way when he is another. He seems to focus on addressing God when he speaks to impress his fellowmen. Of course, they receive their reward, which is the applause of their fellowmen. But disciples dwell in the secret, hidden place of merger with the Trinity God, our Father. We communicate mind to mind and heart to heart! We openly give expression to the resource and power of God’s nature with whom we communicate. What a reward (Matthew 6:6)! It is the reward of knowing His heart and being an expression of His mind! Content of Prayer “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:7-13). Jesus described the heathen as using “vain repetitions” (Matthew 6:7), a translation of the Greek word “battalogesete.” “Battalogesete” is a combination of two Greek words; “battos,” meaning “to stutter,” and “logos,” meaning “word.” This word is used only this one time in the New Testament. It is the expression of the exact words repeatedly; it is speech without distinct expression of purpose. I would encourage you for a week or more to record your prayers. You will quickly recognize how many times you repeat phrases and use the exact words. Although there are many applications to this idea, Jesus focused on one. He addressed the issue of “the things you have need of” (Matthew 6:8). Prayers can take on the tone of “whining.” We become a broken record trying to talk God into something we think we need. We become little children threatening our parents if we do not get what we want. We pack our bags and leave home; we throw fits to display our displeasure. The reality is that we do not know what we need, and what we think we need may be the thing that destroys us. Our demands indicate that we own our life and its circumstances, and we can fix our problems. Therefore, the content of prayer, which demands and seeks solutions by vain repetitions, clearly reveals our attitude of self-centeredness. Owning our lives is the opposite of the Sermon on the Mount’s premise. We are helpless; how can we own anything? We are completely helpless; how can we make demands? Does this mean it is always wrong to ask anything of God? Jesus answers this question with the model prayer, the “Lord’s Prayer” (Matthew 6:9-13), filled with asking. We need daily bread; we need forgiveness; we need deliverance from temptation. No one could conclude that Jesus eliminates all requests in prayer. We must notice the tone or attitude of helplessness expressed in the request. The attitude of ownership and seeking help for what is mine is not present. Do we need daily bread? We do because we are helpless. We cannot supply even the bare necessities for our physical lives. However, this is true for our spiritual lives as well! We must know the continual embrace of His presence experienced in forgiveness and His continual guidance and strength in temptation. A heathen trying to manipulate God has a different tone. This helpless tone is the attitude of someone who continually lives within the boundaries of his helplessness and walks in constant communication with the heart of God. The content of communication with God is one of dependency. My need is so complete and desperate a mere “hand out,” or single intervention is not adequate. I need involvement with God, so absolute it is moment by moment, second by second! I must merge with Him and be in such intimate communication that He is the heart of everything happening in my life. John Wesley was right when he cried, “One split second from God, and I am a devil again.” Prayer is not a religious duty of my life; it describes the life flow between Him and me. He is the “concentration and the content of prayer!” Commentary of Prayer “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15). Jesus could have ended His instructions regarding prayer here, but He continued with two more verses. At first glance, you might think He moved to a different subject. But when we return to the “content of prayer,” we remember this was the request at the heart of the model prayer, the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus said we are to pray, “And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). Most of us are concerned about our finances, and our goal is to be debt-free. What a relief not to owe anything to anyone! However, the Sermon on the Mount’s premise throws us into the awareness of always having debt. I am helpless; therefore, any good thing that comes to my life creates a debt. In my helplessness, I constantly live in the attitude of Jesus’ forgiveness. I am to live in the attitude of “debt.” The reality of this discovery is not in our relationship to God but towards others. With these two verses, Jesus gives further commentary on this subject (Matthew 6:14-15). I can embrace the idea that I am always indebted to God, but what about my fellow man. I do not want to be obligated to or owe him anything. I must live in the attitude of indebtedness to God and live in His forgiveness. As I live in this consistent attitude and tone, communing with God in our merger, what will flow from my life to my fellow man? If I have the heart of the Father, saturate in my indebtedness, and depend on Him, how will I express myself to my fellow man? Jesus says the issue is not about a moment of forgiveness to my fellow man. He is not discussing my brother’s offense to me and that I go to him with forgiveness. Paul declared to the Romans, “I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and unwise” (Romans 1:14). Paul proclaimed the attitude Jesus proposed in our passage. Who is the exception in the “wise and unwise” and “Greeks and to barbarians?” Others will never hurt and offend me as much as I have hurt and offended others. The moment I approach someone with an unforgiving attitude, I must realize I have ceased to acknowledge my helplessness, nullifying my intimacy with God. I have stepped into independence, which barricades any reception from the Trinity God. Jesus calls us to prayer! Jesus is the “concentration of prayer!” He is the “content of prayer,” and He is the “commentary of prayer.” I guess I am a Jesus pusher!
Notes com