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Scripture: Matthew 6: 5-15 and Matthew 6: 16-18
In prayer, what should be our attitude towards the Lord? This might be out of context but nowadays, our behavior in prayer seems like to be a competition especially in front of other people.Now let’s read in the Book of Matthew 6: 5-15,
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This, then, is how you should 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 today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Just a little background of this story, if you were able to attend and listened to our past devotion. So the previous story is when Jesus started His ministry in Matthew 4:12, when Jesus first preached the gospel.
Going back to our devotion. This is also when Jesus taught His disciples and the people what is the right attitude and standard of prayer.
I. Prayer to glorify God alone
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full." Matthew 5:6This is how Christ describe the prayer of a hypocrite person in the Jewish synagogue - “to be seen by others”. This implies to those who wants to pray in the midst of other people to glorify themselves and in order for them to look good or may leave an impression that “they are holy or they pray very well and God will hear there prayer”. And as painful as it is, I am as well, guilty for this.
II. Focus to God
"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen." Matthew 6:6I am really amazed how Jesus throws wisdom if we dig deeper in this verse. But this does not literally mean that praying is just going inside your room and closing the door, but it is when we close and disregard your hidden intentions and keep our thoughts in prayer to God alone.
I am really amazed on how Jesus instructed us to pray on this verse, why? Because praying is not just going inside your room and closing the door, but I believe that it is when we close and disregard our hidden intentions and keep our thoughts in prayer to God alone. God is a personal God and He wants a personal relationship to each in every one of us.
III. Make it genuine and honest
"And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words". Matthew 6:7Honestly, God is not please with long and impressive prayer if our heart is not aligned to it or if we are not sincere. Sometimes prayer is like a routine and requirements that we need to comply because we are so-called "Christians". We can fake our prayers to look good and to look righteous in front of other people, but let us not forget that God sees you and He knows everything. Also in Matthew 6:8, God also told us that He knows what we need before we ask, so basically we don’t need to repeat our prayer all over again because He knows, He sees and He hears.
"Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." Matthew 6:8
But Jesus teaches to be more genuine and should be a heartfelt prayer.
“I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” Jeremiah 17:10
So what is the proper attitude and how should we come to God in prayer? Actually I don’t know how, but Jesus will teach us how through His word.
“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…" Matthew 6:9
IV. Honor God in Prayer
"Bond servants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ." Ephesians 6:5The proper way of interacting with God in prayer is that we should have this kind of obedience where we come to God in fear and trembling. God is holy.
Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth. Psalms 96:6
I couldn’t agree more when we say that God is love, because that is one of the reason why we are here. But most of us Christians forget that God is also holy. So how holy it is?
If we jump into the Book of Isaiah
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah 6:3
It is so sad to see, that we fear men so much and we fear God so little. We don’t usually talk about the reverence of God, in this generation most of us just say our prayer without sincerity and devotion to God, it’s like we are just entitled in our prayer time where there is no room for convictions.
Conclusion:
I hope that we are all reminded by this topic in prayer, that God’s standards are very unattainable and we always fall short in these standards.Fasting
So let’s proceed to our next topic which is fasting.What is fasting? – In accordance to the biblestudytools.com it is essentially giving up of food or something else in order to focus your thoughts on God.
In Matthew 6:16-18
"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting." Matthew 6:16
In this context it is a way of expressing our grief or means of humbling ourselves before. And that verse also tells us that we don’t fast to manipulate God and to show others that we are more righteous than them.
Why do we fast? – So here are the 4 short points of why we fast in prayer.
Humble ourselves before the LORD
"Yet when they were ill, I put on sackclothand humbled myself with fasting.
When my prayers returned to me unanswered" Psalms 35:13
Our prayer and fasting shouldn’t be always focusing in ourselves. We should know our place before God that whether God answers our prayer or not we should still praise and honor Him.
Spiritual strength in overcoming temptations
Remember how Jesus got tested in the wilderness, in Matthew 14: 1-11 where he was also tempted.
Draw near closer to God
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:8Therefore, if we truly look in God’s standards in Praying and fasting, we surely failed every day.
Praying and fasting is our fruit in our faith in Christ as we accept Him as our Lord and Saviour. And by the grace of God and through Christ we are now able to communicate God anywhere and anytime because Christ is now living in us Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
We need Christ everyday of our lives, we need His grace and we should acknowledge our nothingness apart from Him, let us learn to admire how precious Jesus Christ is in our life. Though Jesus is the only way.
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."John 14:6
For as we accepted Christ as our Lord, He already planted the Kingdom of Heaven in our hearts. All we need to do is to acknowledge Him in at all times. And turn away from our old nature (sins) as we die ourselves every day and to carry the Cross.
Photo by: Nathaniel Callanta
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