Main idea: We should pray regularly, privately, and simply, so that God will hear us when we pray.
- We should pray regularly, vv. 5a, 6a, 7a
- We should pray privately, vv. 5b-6d
- We should pray simply, vv.7b-8a
- God hears us when we pray, vv. 6e-g, 8b
- God rewards us for praying, v. 6e-g
- God answers our prayer, v. 8b
If you’ve ever taken a class on public speaking, then you learned that one of the keys to good communication is clarity. When you speak, you want to make sure that people can hear you and understand you. Yet for various reasons, we don’t always make ourselves clear. When we talk, people don’t always get our message.
When you find that people aren’t getting your message, what do you do? Some people talk louder. It’s not unusual for Americans who travel to a foreign country to raise their voice thinking, “If I talk louder, they’ll understand me.” Unfortunately, talking louder doesn’t help if the people don’t understand English.
Sometimes people will repeat themselves over and over in the hopes of getting across their point. Repetition can be helpful, but other times it just seems like nagging, and no one likes to be nagged.
Sometimes, we wait for an opportune time to talk to someone. Especially if it’s about something sensitive, we wait for the right moment.
One of the best ways to be a good communicator is to be a good listener. Good communication is not always about getting across your point of view. Good communication involves understanding the point of view of the person to whom you wish to communicate. Good communication is a two-way conversation that involves talking and listening.
Talking to God is similar to talking to people. When we talk to God in prayer we are having a two-way conversation between us and God. When we pray, we talk with God, and we listen to God.
In prayer, we don’t need to talk loud for God to hear us. We don’t need to use flowery speech or fancy words. We don’t need to use special “prayer” voice. We don’t need to keep repeating ourselves to get across our message.
We can talk to God any time of day or night. We can tell God everything we think. We don’t have to be afraid that God will get mad at us. He already knows what we’re thinking anyway.
Just as there are keys to better communication with people, so too there are keys for better communication with God. We read about some of the ways to talk to God in Matthew chapter six. In Matthew chapter six, verses five through eight we read that we should pray regularly, we should pray privately, and we should pray simply, so that God will hear us when we pray. Matthew 6:5-8
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 others. 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 Gentiles 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.
When we pray regularly, privately, and simply; we fulfill God’s will and God hears us when we pray.
First, we should pray regularly, vv. 5a, 6a, 7a; “When you pray . . . when you pray . . . when you pray.”
The repetition of Jesus’ words “when you pray” clearly shows that we should pray regularly.
What does it mean to pray regularly?
I would suggest that we should spend time in prayer at least once every day. If you pray more than once a day that’s fantastic, but at a minimum we should spend time with God in prayer at least once a day, every day.
We eat every day. In fact, most of us eat three times a day or more every day.
Occasionally, I’ll hear someone say they were just too busy to find time to eat, but that is rare. Most of us make the time to go shopping to buy the food. We take time to cook the food, and we somehow find time to eat the food, because we need food to live.
If you take medication, you probably take your medication every day. I don’t think you would ever tell your doctor: “Doc, I haven’t been taking my medicine because I’m just too busy.” Yet, we’re willing to say to God, “God, I haven’t been praying because I’m just too busy.”
We need to include daily prayer as part of our daily routine. Prayer should be an important part of your life. We need to make the time to pray. We need to put prayer into our schedule.
Many people who care about their physical health have a daily exercise routine. Some go to the gym. Others jog. My mom who will turn eighty years old next month walks a mile on a treadmill in her basement every morning. We have time for all kinds of activities that we think are important to our physical health, but do we take time for our spiritual health.
Make a daily appointment with God. Meet with God every day.
We should pray regularly, and we should pray privately, vv. 5-6
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 others. 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.
We should pray privately, meaning we need to have a quiet place where we can be alone with God.
The NIV translation says: “when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” This “room” was the ταμεῖον, an inner room in the house where a person could be alone.
In the book of Genesis we read of the story of Joseph who had been sold into slavery by his brothers. Many years later, Joseph had risen to a high position in Egypt and his brothers came to him. Upon seeing his brothers, Joseph was so overcome with emotion that he had to retreat to his private room. The Bible says, “Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there (Genesis 43:30).”
In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this private room is the ταμεῖον, an inner room in the house.
We need a private place to pray so that we can pour out our hearts to God without fear of being interrupted.
Verse six says: “when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” The word “unseen.” is a translation of the Greek word κρυπτός. κρυπτός means “secret, hidden, or private.” We get our word cryptic from the Greek word κρυπτός.
God is a spiritual being and when we reach out to talk with God we enter into a mysterious, spiritual dimension. One reason we often close our eyes when we pray is to shut out the physical world and enter into the spirit world where God is.
Closing our eyes helps us to shut out the distractions of this world and helps us to mentally enter into a spiritual world where we meet with God. Nothing magical happens when we go into a quiet, private place to meet with God, but mentally, we can better focus our thoughts on God.
We need to find a quiet, private place for prayer in our home or our apartment. If there are others in the house, finding a quiet place where you can be alone with God means that you will probably have to get up just a little earlier than everyone else. When everyone else is awake, the house will be noisy. There will be interruptions and other distractions, but if you wake up before everyone else, you can meet with God and spend time with God alone—just you and God.
We should pray regularly, we should pray privately, and we should pray simply, vv.7b-8a
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them.”
We should pray simply.
Starting this morning and over the next few weeks we’ll be looking at the Lord’s prayer. The Lord’s prayer is a very simple prayer. It’s not a prayer to repeat every Sunday in church. The Lord’s prayer is a pattern for how we should pray.
The prayer starts out addressing God: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
You should start your prayers by greeting God and acknowledging who he is. Among many other things, God is your heavenly father. And God is holy. A simple prayer simply recognizes God and recognizes his power.
Next the Lord’s prayer lines up your heart and life with God’s will for your life: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Then Jesus says we should ask for a few things like daily needs, forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from evil. Jesus model prayer says: “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.’ ”
This prayer is very simple. So when you pray, follow Jesus’ guidelines and keep your prayers simple.
These are Jesus’ instruction to us about how to pray.
Next we read how God responds to our prayer. The Bible teaches that when we pray correctly, according to God’s will, God hears us when we pray, but not only does God hear us, he rewards us and he answers us.
God hears us when we pray, vv. 6d, 8b
“And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. . . Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.“
God hears us when we pray.
A man was concerned that his wife was going deaf. He mentioned his concerns to his doctor and the doctor told him to go home and stand about 15 feet behind your wife and say something. If she doesn’t hear you, move closer and say it again. Keep doing this so that we’ll get an idea about the severity of her deafness. So the husband went home and did exactly as instructed. He starts off standing about 15 feet behind his wife who is standing at the kitchen counter preparing dinner and says, “Honey, what’s for dinner?” He hears no response so he moves closer and asks again. No reply. He moves closer. Still no reply. He gets fed up and moves right behind her, about an inch away, and asks loudly, “Honey, what’s for dinner?” She replies, “For the fourth time, beef stew!”
As we get older, some of us begin to lose our hearing and we may need to use hearing aids, but God doesn’t need hearing aids. God can hear every whisper. God knows all our thoughts. He knows what we are going to pray even before we ask. v. 8b
“Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.“
Not only does God hear us but he will reward us for praying, v. 6e-g
“Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
God rewards us for praying.
This reward is a sort of exchange—a compensation, a reward. In exchange for our efforts to seek God in prayer, God compensates us. The reward for praying privately where no one sees us is approval from God. What better reward than to have God’s approval, to hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Finally, the Bible says that God will answer our prayer, v. 8b
“Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.“
The implication is that since God hears our prayers God will answer our prayers.
There are, however, a few stipulations for answered prayer. In order for God to answer our prayers, we must meet certain conditions.
1 John 5:14 “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
So we must pray according to God’s will or God will not hear and answer our prayers. What does it mean to pray according to God’s will? First of all, we cannot hold grudges. Jesus said, “When you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Mark 11:25
We cannot hold grudges and we cannot ask for selfish things. The Bible says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” James 4:3
We cannot hold grudges, we cannot ask for selfish things, and we need to treat our spouse with respect. The Bible says, 1 Peter 3:7
“Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”
To pray according to God’s will so that he hears and answers our prayers we cannot hold grudges, we cannot ask for selfish things, we need to treat our spouse with respect, and we need to pray in faith. James writes: James 1:6-7
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.
Finally, we must confess our sins and turn away from sin. David says in Psalm sixty-six: “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” Psalm 66:18
These are some of the ways to pray according to God’s will and if we pray according to God’s will, God will hear and answer our prayers.
The most important point is to pray. We must spend time with God in prayer every day. We must have a special time to be with God alone, privately, and we must keep our prayers simple and pray according to God’s will. Not holding grudges, not praying for selfish things, being respectful of our spouse, praying in faith and confessing our sins.
God is a good God. God delights in answering the prayers of his children. The Bible says that if we who are evil know how to give good things to our children, how much more will our perfect father in heaven give good things to us.