Monday
Monday
Christian Prayer
Do not be like them [the pagans], for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Matthew 6:8
The reason why Christians are not to pray like pagans is that we believe in the living and true God. We are not to do as they do because we are not to think as they think. On the contrary, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” He is neither ignorant of our needs nor hesitant to meet them. Why, then, should we pray? What is the point of prayer? Let Calvin answer our questions with his customary clarity:
Believers do not pray with the view to informing God about things unknown to him, or of exciting him to do his duty, or of urging him as though he were reluctant. On the contrary, they pray in order that they may arouse themselves to seek him, that they may exercise their faith in meditating on his promises, that they may relieve themselves from their anxieties by pouring them into his bosom; in a word that they may declare that from him alone they hope and expect, both for themselves and for others, all good things.
If the praying of Pharisees was hypocritical and that of pagans mechanical, then the praying of Christians must be real—sincere as opposed to hypocritical, thoughtful as opposed to mechanical.
The so-called Lord’s Prayer was given by Jesus as a model of what genuine Christian prayer is like. According to Matthew, he gave it as a pattern to copy (“Pray then like this” [v. 9 RSV]); according to Luke, as a form to use (“When you pray, say …” [Luke 11:2]). Indeed, we can use the prayer in both ways.
Jesus taught us to address God as “our Father in heaven” (v. 9). This implies first that he is personal. He may be, in C. S. Lewis’s well-known expression “beyond personality,” but he is certainly not less. Secondly, he is loving. He is not the kind of father we sometimes hear about—autocrat, playboy, drunkard—but one who fulfills the ideals of fatherhood in loving care for his children. Thirdly, he is powerful. What his love directs his power is able to perform. It is always wise, before we pray, to spend time recalling who he to whom we are coming is.
For further reading: Matthew 6:7–13