Matthew 6:5-8 - Praying to the Father

Jesus' teaching on prayer starts in the same vein. People in those days were known to make a big show of praying, standing on street corners making it obvious to everyone how "holy" they were. We can do the same today. Not on street corners, people will just think we are mad, but in church. Again, Jesus says if the praise of people is all they want, then that is all they will get. Their prayers have truly been answered!

But prayer is meant to be much more than this. It is communication between the Father and His children. We have open access to the living God, just think how amazing that is! If we have access to the Lord of All, why on earth would we be bothered about trying to impress men?

So Jesus tells us to pray in private, so it is just us and God. The exercise is only worthwhile if God is really there. Moreover we are not to babble on, thinking our form of words, are endless repetition of a phrase will increase out chances of success.

Now again we need to remind ourselves that Jesus is not laying down laws, He is focussing on the heart. So it is fine to pray in public. There are times when this is the right thing to do. Also, there is nothing wrong with praying eloquent prayers. Indeed in a public prayer an eloquent prayer can be helpful in encouraging everyone to identify with the prayer. But if we start praying eloquent prayers in order to show how clever or holy we are, then we can be sure that God is not impressed. Conversely, we should not be afraid to pray in public fearing our words will not sound impressive. Maybe they won't to men, but it is God we are seeking.

We come to a Father who already knows what we need. Pray is about a relationship with God.

Someone might ask, well if God already knows what we need, why do we have to ask in the first place? Because it is a relationship. With our own children there are times when we know what they want, but it is best not to give it to them until/unless they ask. Indeed sometimes it is not possible to help them until they ask. There are somethings that God will not do unless we ask Him to.