Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 192nd episode. In this episode we’re going to continue our study of the gospel of Matthew. We are in chapter 6. This chapter is going to discuss giving to the needy; we’ll take a look at the Lord’s Prayer; Jesus talks about fasting; we’ll find out what it means to invest your treasures in Heaven; and we’ll also see what Jesus teaches about anxiety. In the previous chapter Jesus equipped His disciples to deal with the corrupt doctrines of the scribes and Pharisees — in particular their expositions of the law. Having already warned them about basic sins like lust, in this chapter we’ll see Jesus focus in on hypocrisy and worldly-mindedness. Hypocrisy is exceptionally dangerous for people who appear to have escaped the general morass of wickedness which attends the unrefined world. Throughout this chapter we’ll see Jesus teach the proper way to give, to pray, and to fast. He compares this proper way to the way of the hypocrites. When Jesus talks about worldly-mindedness He targets two specific areas which are wealth and anxiety. His contention is that you cannot serve both God and wealth. He also warns His disciples against the disquieting power of anxiety and explains how a proper Christian need not be controlled by worries. Let’s begin with verses 1-4:
Mat 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
Mat 6:2 “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
Mat 6:3 “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
Mat 6:4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
In the previous chapter we were told not to engage in sins of the heart like lust and unrighteous anger. We see a new concept emerge here which is the maintenance of a virtue of the heart. In this case the virtue is your faithfulness to honor God. Whatever good things you do for the kingdom of God, you should be doing them from an internal motivation to be approved by God — not to be applauded by men.
There’s a school of thought which says giving, prayer, and fasting make up the three great pillars of Christian duty. The claim is that these are three foundations of the law because they focus on our three principle interests: giving targets our estate, prayer targets our soul, and fasting targets our bodies. I think these three areas are important in terms of spiritual discipline but I’m not exactly ready to call them foundational. The reason I wouldn’t call them foundational is because without proper doctrine you can easily practice these three things in a way that’s damaging to yourself and others. The practices themselves are not sources of virtue and we know this because the Pharisees practiced all of these in ways which were not virtuous. I believe proper understanding of scripture is the source of virtue and these three spiritual disciplines emerge as a consequence of such understanding.
Jesus says we should beware of practicing our righteousness before men to be noticed by them. Vanity is an ever-present danger in the Church and especially among church leaders. Jesus knew His disciples would face this threat because they were given great power to do wondrous works. They would be tempted to use this power to glorify themselves. Today we’re not miracle-workers after the manner of the apostles, but we’re still able to do some very impressive things with our resources and our technology. Having the power to do great things — even if these things are objectively good — lays open the vulnerability of doing these things to promote your own status.
Much like the disciples of Christ, a normal follower of Jesus today will be exposed to a mix of people who admire them and people who despise them. Both ends of this spectrum present the danger of honoring oneself. If everyone around you admires you then it’s easy to convince yourself of your own righteousness. If a lot of people despise you then it’s easy to attempt glorifying yourself to win their favor. The horizontal focus of hypocrisy and people-pleasing is deleterious to the vertical focus of your relationship with God. Jesus cautions you against this sort of thing because it doesn’t take much of it to destroy the entire project of serving Him.
This passage presents the discipline of giving to the poor in a godly light. It’s a great Christian duty which all disciples of Jesus must abound in. Obviously this kind of giving is according to your ability — Jesus is not saying to strip yourself of all resources or make yourself poor by giving to the poor. But this kind of giving should not be neglected and we see it emphasized throughout the Old Testament by the Mosaic Law as well as by the prophets. A common misunderstanding might be to suggest giving to the poor is not good in-and-of itself simply because there are those who abuse it to serve their pride. You’ll remember even I said something which sounded an awful lot like that in the beginning of this podcast. Linguistic precision is incredibly important here: it’s true that giving to the poor is inherently good but it’s not true that giving to the poor is a source of virtue. So even when the Pharisees gave to the poor to make themselves look good — their act of giving to the poor remained a good thing despite their improper motives. But it was not a source of virtue because they themselves were not made any less wicked by the goodness of the act since their hearts were wrong the entire time.
James, who puts great emphasis on giving to the poor, says that, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” Giving to the poor is not something which can sanctify you or be the ticket which earns your way into Heaven, but the inherent godliness of the act itself suggests that if you don’t do it then you may have a deeper spiritual issue which needs cleansed. It’s also true that if you practice almsgiving without the Pharisaic element of hypocrisy then scripture says you will be rewarded in Heaven as well as here on earth. Once again this presents the danger of doing it just for the reward which is the wrong motivation. You don’t want this to be transactional. The fact that you’ll be rewarded for properly motivated almsgiving is less like a transaction and more like a law built into the universe and into the economy of Heaven. Proverbs 11 teaches that there is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, And there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want. The same chapter also says the generous man will be prosperous, And he who waters will himself be watered.
Further along in Proverbs chapter 19 we see that one who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD, And God will repay him for his good deed. Then in chapter 28 it says he who gives to the poor will never want, But he who shuts his eyes will have many curses. This idea of generosity resulting in your own security from privation is reinforced by Psalm 37 which says, “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.” So the idea here is that those who are freely generous will be taken care of by the providence of God.
Such generosity takes a lot of faith to exercise, but we can walk through a simplified chain of reasoning as to how it might work. Imagine you’re proactive with your generosity and you’re always doing what you can to lift others out of difficult situations. Even if you do it unrequited and it’s purely sacrificial for their betterment instead of yours — chances are this person is going to remember you. If you build up a large enough network of people who remember your readiness to help them, then you’re going to have an army of people who show up when you’re the one who needs help. Human resources are able to offer you things which large reserves of money cannot offer. It’s better to have a trustworthy and loving community of people who you’ve helped rather than a community of people who value your savings account or their potential inheritance.
So we can reason out how generosity results in positive returns on a temporal front, but the scriptures also promise positive returns in the sight of God. One such return is deliverance in the midst of tribulation. Psalm 41 says, “How blessed is he who considers the helpless; The LORD will deliver him in a day of trouble. The LORD will protect him and keep him alive, And he shall be called blessed upon the earth; And do not give him over to the desire of his enemies.” It’s better to have God’s protection than it is to have the protection of a large mass of wealth you’ve gathered as a consequence of neglecting the poor. If you want respect, honor, and a good name then the best first step is to stop coveting it and start living self-sacrificially. Psalm 112 describes this kind of person when it says, “He has given freely to the poor, His righteousness endures forever; His horn will be exalted in honor.” In the 14th chapter of Luke’s gospel the scripture promises that when you give to those who can’t repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous in eternal riches.
I said earlier that I think giving to the poor can be a good thing even if it’s selfishly motivated. However, improperly motivated giving will not be accounted to you as righteousness. When the Pharisees gave to the poor they did so in service to their own image. They wanted others to view them at pious and compassionate. They weren’t doing it to obey God and they weren’t doing it because they loved the poor — they were doing it because they knew how to manipulate the situation for self-interest. It was never an act of generosity because they gained more out of it than they gave. This is one of the reasons why the Pharisees always practiced almsgiving in the synagogues or in the streets — anywhere there was enough foot traffic for them to be noticed. When about to practice almsgiving, they would even sound a trumpet outside their homes under the pretense of drawing in the poor. In actuality they wanted to proclaim their charity and engender public admiration.
None of this means you should withhold your giving just because other people are watching you. It means you should always be looking for struggling people whom no one else notices. And you should be cautious that the attention never becomes your motivation for giving. Concerning the religious elite who gave for attention, Jesus said they have their reward. This indicates they forsook the reward God promised the generous in favor of the reward they promised themselves. If you’re doing God’s work out of selfish, carnal motivations then you might be able to manipulate your way into getting some good things now — but you will have traded away God’s blessings for it. True followers of Jesus should view earthly rewards as working capital to facilitate yet further generosity. From this perspective, all good things in this life are transient and it’s better to lay up your treasures in Heaven.
What Jesus said concerning humility in giving is very important for us to remember. He said, “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” The point here is for you to take extra steps in order to keep your generosity private. Not only are you discouraged from giving for the sake of attention or to make yourself appear generous — but you’re actually instructed to go out of the way if necessary in order to prevent others from knowing. It’s a fair reading to limit this instruction to humility, but it’s also true that if you remain anonymous in your generosity then you will be spared from attracting people who wish to take advantage of you. When a person wins the lottery, it’s not uncommon for them to keep it secret for this very reason.
Despite the benefit of anonymity, I think the biblical injunction is mainly targeted at those who would use generosity to give themselves a good name. Our generosity should be motivated by the good work itself, rather than how we will look while doing the good work. If for logistical reasons you must involve others in your generosity then you can take steps to help them see your desire for anonymity. Imagine you make a huge donation to your community and as a result the councilmen want to name a public park after you or put your portrait in the newspaper. This is an instance where you can politely decline their offer of recognition. Most people on the receiving side of generosity view recognition as a simple way they can give back to the donor. I don’t think they will be too upset if you decline the reciprocity because the important part for them (and you) is the act of generosity itself.
Christ’s command for anonymity in generosity goes even deeper than whether other people notice it. He’s also admonishing you against noticing it yourself. If you start to fall in love with your own good works then you will find yourself on a treacherous path to pride. A good example of this in the American church are Christians who use generosity to justify their own lack of sanctification. If you have a certain amount of wealth then it’s much easier for you to throw money at a problem than it is for you to patiently care for yourself or others. God desires that you be shaped into the likeness of Christ more than He desires your money, although tithing your money is part of this process.
If you use your generosity as a pass to fall short in other areas of your life then those other areas are going to sneak up on you and cause destruction. If a father neglects his own family and justifies the neglect by giving them financial resources, the family will still fall apart despite having enough money. Taken to its extreme we see situations in the history of the Catholic Church where the priesthood sold indulgences. The selling of indulgences meant a person who was about to commit a sin could go to a priest and pay the priest for absolution. So if you gave the priest enough money he would effectively give you a green light to do whatever you wanted — even if your actions were a grievous rebellion against God.
This idea of God seeing in secret indicates that He appreciates our works most when we ourselves take least notice of them. God pays attention to the wrongs which are done to you even if no one else notices and even if you never see justice in this life. It’s the same with good works — He focuses on them even when the rest of the world passes them by. The omniscience of God is a great comfort to the faithful even while it is a great terror to the rebellious. There is no place you can go to escape the sight of God. The thoughts which never escape your mouth as words are yet subject to His examination. Even the intimations of your heart before they are formulated into thoughts are underneath His scrutiny. How terrifying is the living God if you’re disconnected from His love and His mercy for you. The omnipresence of God should bring great comfort to the faithful because it means no matter where you go you are never alone. The omnipotence of God should sustain your hope because it means no matter what you’re up against nothing is beyond the strength of His reach.
Also don’t forget how the scripture promises your reward from God Himself. It’s not as if He isn’t going to recompense you for your generosity. This reward may not come in the form you expect, but you can rest assured it is the best possible reward. In an ultimate sense the reward is not transactional either. We know that God is a God who gives abundantly more than we deserve — this trait is most clearly evidenced by the sacrifice of Jesus and His love for us while we were yet sinners. To walk according to God’s precepts and to be a faithful follower of Christ means to experience the presence of God in Heaven. Even if you’re given nothing else, to experience the direct presence of God in Heaven will be more than anything you could ever imagine. And this unfathomable gift will be given to you for all of eternity. Let’s read verses 5-8:
Mat 6:5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
Mat 6:6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Mat 6:7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.
Mat 6:8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
We walked through why sincerity is important in almsgiving, but it’s even more important in prayer. Prayer is the most direct connection you share with God outside of scripture. Prayer is so fundamental to the Christian faith that scripture considers it a granted reality that the disciples of Jesus prayed. Prayer should be so ubiquitous among Christians that a faithful person who prays is no more unique than a living person who breathes. Christ warns His disciples against praying after the manner of the hypocrites — who were undoubtedly the scribes and the Pharisees (as well as the Gentiles when it came to meaningless repetition). The way we pray is quite influential over the way we act because the way we pray is informed by what we believe about God. A. W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
If we analyze the faulted prayers of the scribes and Pharisees we see two dimensions along which they were getting it wrong. First was that their prayers were designed and expressed in a way to bring glory to themselves. Second was vain, meaningless repetition, and although the Pharisees likely did this, Christ points to the Gentiles as culprits as well. The Pharisees used public prayer to make a show of their piety and engender commendation from their neighbors. When you’re in prayer your soul and your focus should be soaring upward. If your attention is focused downward on your peers then your frame of mind concerning prayer is wrong.
One of the behaviors which revealed the Pharisees’ motives was that they would make grandiose and personal prayers inside the synagogues. The synagogues were indeed the proper place for public prayer but public prayer was not meant to be self-focused the way these were. The nature of the prayer itself revealed how the Pharisee was seeking to engender glory for himself rather than honoring the house of God. They also prayed in the middle of the most densely populated intersections. They made a pretense of needing to pray in these places because they “just could no longer contain themselves and could no longer delay their communion with God.” But in actuality they wanted to be in view of all the people and they wanted passersby to hear the things they prayed.
Sometimes you see modern equivalents to this in how Christians will use public prayer as a vehicle for gossip. They’ll break bad news about someone or disclose a private matter under the pretense of wanting the group to pray for that person — but God is not fooled. Another issue with the Pharisees is that they prayed standing up. Standing while praying wasn’t necessarily bad, in fact it was the prescribed posture in some contexts. But the issue with the Pharisees is that they stood up even when the reverence of kneeling was in order. So much of their misbehavior concerning prayer stemmed from pride. They loved to pray in public places because in truth they didn’t love praying at all — they just loved being noticed. This is the same for a person who never does a good deed unless he or she has an audience to witness it. Circumstances often require your good deeds to be done in public view but we should guard our hearts against falling in love with the applause and commendation.
You can picture the wickedness of the Pharisees like this: they did their good works and prayed their pious prayers in an effort to be admired by men while disregarding the acceptance of God. They were motivated by the power and the wealth open piety brought to them. They knew public displays of religiosity would encourage widows and orphans to trust them with their estates. And then, because of their religious reputation, they knew they could devour these people without being suspected for it. All of it was driven by a dark, twisted desire to enslave the most helpless among us. Jesus could see their satanic designs merely by looking at them, which is why He condemned more harshly than almost any other class of people in scripture.
In all of your walk through life you should understand that if your motive for action becomes more about advancement of your reputation among your peers than about pleasing and honoring God then you’re accepting the losing end of a deal. What I mean is by that is, if you strive for the commendation of your peers you will often do things which cause you to lose the commendation of God. What good will it be if your peers (whose mortal lives are as vaporous as yours) congratulate you at the expense of the eternal God telling you, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” You make a terrible mistake if you allow a human being to become your idol or your judge. The best person you can think of is not but dust and ashes like yourself. Your sanctification as well as your personal prayers should remain between you and God.
So what do we do about public prayer? It’s important to note here that I’m not suggesting we abstain from public prayer altogether. There are three guidelines you can follow concerning public prayer to ensure you do it properly. First is that public prayer should not exceed your own personal devotion to God. If you discover that the only time you pray is in front of other people then you have an issue which needs sorted out. Second is that your public prayer should never become a vehicle for glorifying yourself. This goes back to the idea of using prayer as a pretense to speak highly of yourself or to denigrate others. Third is that your public prayer will often be best executed when you are praying the scriptures. The Lord’s Prayer itself (although presented in the context of private prayer) is the perfect template for a public prayer which honors God. Scripture is full of examples like this which you can draw from when constructing a public prayer. Your prayer doesn’t have to be whatever feeling or thought is in your head at the given moment — and in fact I would advise against that. You can save those for your private time with God.
In contradistinction to the corrupt mindset of the Pharisees, Jesus tells us that when we pray humility and sincerity should rule our temperament. The first result of these honorable motives is that we tend to pray in private more than in public. The great figures of scripture, including Jesus Himself, all retired into private locations when practicing their devotion of prayer. This privacy will allow you to be more free in your calling out to God. You won’t be disturbed by the distraction of others and you won’t feel inclined to say what pleases them. If for whatever reason it’s not possible for you to find privacy then you should pray in the presence of others. The lack of privacy does not justify a neglect for prayer.
Part of Christ’s instruction is that your prayer always be directed at God — which we discussed a bit earlier. It should be enough for you that God hears your prayers, you should not need other people to hear them as well. Furthermore you should pray to God as your Father. This means when praying in private you need not maintain the pretense of pious appearance. God knows your heart better than you do. He knows all of your embarrassing secrets. He wants you to be free and open with Him in your private prayer. Because you can pray in the name of Jesus, God the Father is also your Father and He is ready to hear you, ready to provide for you, and quick to comfort you. I will say that ignorance of scripture is not justified even in private prayer. If you ask God for something which isn’t in His character to give you, then you might feel betrayed when He doesn’t give it. But if you had known the scriptures then you would have known the character of God and you would have shaped your prayer accordingly.
One of the benefits of habituating a devotion of private prayer is that it will help you practice realizing the omnipresence of God. Almost all Christians are intellectually aware of God’s omnipresence, but I’m not convinced many of them actually realize it. He’s with you right now as you’re listening to this podcast. He’s with me as I’m recording it. He’s equally hundreds of years in the past at this very moment as He is in the present, and as He is in the future. He is present in all locations and in all times simultaneously. This is hard to understand, but if you practice the presence of God and realize that He is with you in every moment of your life then you will experience great comfort. We’re not designed to go through life alone and we’re not meant to bear the illusion that God is not with us. Imagine what your life would be like if you practiced His presence everywhere you go. Imagine how much braver and how much more durable you would be. Imagine the grief that would subside when you truly realize that no one has ever died alone.
I think one of the characteristics of God which is least realized is His omnipresence. I think the number of Christians who are walking through life under the illusion of being alone is enormous. There are two levels to this illusion: the first and most obvious is the sense that God is not with you in a given location. The second is that God isn’t with you in your past. If we believe the Bible then we must accept that God (right now) is present in the events of your memories. The hardest moments of your past, He is there in them with your past-self right now. And if God exists in your past with your past-self at this very moment then that means He can change the quality of your past and therefore the quality of your present and future.
What’s crazy about that entire notion is that’s exactly how you heal trauma. You reformat your memories in closer accordance with the truth and consequently your past changes. If what you believe about the past is a lie, and if you’ve convinced yourself the past cannot be changed, then you’ve locked yourself into a deception. We know that our observation of reality is mediated by our perception. This is not optional. We can’t see it without looking through our perception. If your perception is informed by lies then literally what you see around you isn’t actually there. You’re looking at a construction given birth by your pathological perception. If this construction is built on lies rooted in your past and if you believe the past is fixed, then you’re locked out of observing reality as it truly is. If you can’t observe reality as it truly is then how can you expect to navigate it properly?
Scripture says that God sees in secret. John’s Gospel records Jesus telling Nathaniel He saw him under the fig tree before Phillip ever called him. The book of Acts shows us that God both saw Paul and heard his prayer while he was hidden away in the house on Straight street. The truth is no creature anywhere in existence is able to take a breath without God observing it. The prayers you pray in secret and the good works you do in secret will each have their rewards in Heaven. The kind of reward you will be graced with in Heaven is not a mere flash or shadow like the rewards of mortal men — this heavenly reward shall carry all the weight of glory. The saints of God will stand side-by-side with Christ the King and their honor will be reckoned to them for it. The self-dominated Pharisees had neither the patience nor the humility to understand this eternal truth.
We also see Christ admonish us against vain repetition in the practice of collective prayer. This is kind of like the ostentatious use of words in making prayers both long and elegant simply to impress the human listener. Jesus said God the Father knows what we need even before we ask for it, so there is no sense in vain repetition unless our goal is to captivate our audience. Christ gives the Lord’s Prayer as an example of the right way to do it — and I think you can use the Lord’s prayer as a template to model your own prayer in almost any circumstances. The Pharisees forsook this model and instead made their public prayers both long and tedious. The overuse of words is tedious in any discourse, let alone in communion with God. Voltaire is credited as saying, “I’m sorry I wrote you such a long letter as I did not have time to write you a short one.” This means it often requires deeper intelligence to state your claims clearly and succinctly, and Ecclesiastes chapter 10 says the fool multiplies words.
You might be wondering about the instances where we see Jesus Himself praying the same thing repeatedly. We also see elegant repetition throughout the Psalms. Repetition itself is not the target of condemnation here, rather it’s vain repetition. It’s the kind of repetition or overuse of words which is purposed to garner praise from an audience. Repetition is sometimes necessary to express our deepest sense about a topic and this kind of repetition is not wrong. Another way of thinking about vain repetition is to imagine religious incantations. People who repeatedly speak the same mantras in an attempt to summon God are practicing a form of paganism in their prayer. I think it’s possible to see this kind of thing in contemporary worship music if you aren’t careful.
You can also think of vain repetition as a student trying to write an essay on a topic he or she is ignorant about. The use of filler words and run-on sentences is entirely designed to satisfy a minimum word count. But it’s essentially a dishonest transaction. The student is writing what he or she thinks the professor wants to read — not what he or she actually understands or believes about a topic. If you pray to God with this same lack of authenticity it’s likely that He counts your prayer as an offense and disregards it entirely. Once more I want to be careful to point out this does not mean all long prayers are bad. In scripture we Jesus praying all night long. There are other biblical characters whose long prayers are documented in the Bible line-by-line. In the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 2, King Solomon says, “Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few.”
Being precise in your speech is a practice which will transform your entire life and make everything better for you. This benefit applies equally well with regards to prayer. Words are an interesting thing because their ease of use belies just how impactful they really are. I truly can’t overstate this fact — it’s hard to say how many fights have started and how many marriages have ended because one or both people were not careful in the use of their words. You can hurt someone for the rest of their life by using the wrong words with them. This reality puts a lot of responsibility on you because the stakes are high but it also gives you a lot of power to influence others for well-being. If you make a commitment today to begin being precise in your speech and to refrain from lying, then you will be well on the right path to a better future.
One of the reasons why Jesus warned His disciples against vain repetition in prayer is because the practice carried a pagan influence. Even though pagan people were outside of the Christian faith they still said prayers to whoever their invented gods were. The religious impulse is built into our design as human beings and the general revelation of God is portrayed in nature because it is His creation. This general revelation is meant to draw us in to special revelation through the scriptures and the person of Jesus Christ. The issue with pagan idolaters is that they stopped short of special revelation and instead chose to create gods in their own image. Consequently they believed their idols needed drawn-out explanations in prayer in order to understand their requests. They also thought they could persuade their idols to act via the right combination of words and behaviors. So it wasn’t unusual for the priests of Baal to pray the same repetitions from morning until night in an effort to coax their false god into action.
In 1 Kings chapter 18 the prophet Elijah challenges these priests to call on their idol so he might be measured up against the true and living God. The priests chant prayers from morning until evening in an effort to get an answer from Baal and, of course, nothing happens. So then they start cutting themselves and dancing around the altar believing this behavior might summon him forward. Nothing happens. In contrast to this pagan display, Elijah prays one simple prayer to God and God shows up by raining fire down upon the altar in a miraculous show of force which removes all doubt that He is the true and living God.
The point of what Jesus is saying is that God knows what you need before you even ask for it. It makes no sense to endlessly persuade Him to act according to your own will. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pray either. God requires us to pray in part because it reminds us of our own need for Him as well as our dependence on Him. So you present your needs, you pour out your heart before God, and then you leave it with Him. A good way of thinking about this is to imagine how a child communicates with his or her parents. They don’t construct a five paragraph essay of persuasion in order to tell them they want something or to tell them if something is wrong. Yes it’s true that children will use sales pitches or forms of begging when they really want something but that’s not the same as what I’m talking about here. There is an ease of communication between child and parent which is the same ease you should have in prayer with God your Father.
Romans chapter 8 indicates that some of the most powerful intercessory prayer comes in the form of you calling out to God in groans which are too deep for words. This is not speaking in tongues, rather it’s the same kind of groaning you make when you’re in intense emotional or physical distress. God understands the meaning behind the groaning even if you’re so broken you can’t find the right words to pray.
Jesus Christ has established a relationship between ourselves and the Father such that we may call Him Abba, Father. Abba is an informal term small children use with their dads. Scripture says the eyes of God run to and fro throughout the earth to strongly support the cause of those whose hearts are completely His. The prophet Isaiah says that sometimes God will provide even before we ask and He will hear our request while we are yet making it. And finally Ephesians says that God is able to do abundantly more than we ask, think, or imagine. When you give yourself to God through Jesus Christ then He will give you what you need for continued sanctification and spiritual well-being. If He doesn’t give you what you want it’s likely because you don’t need it or because receiving it will not be in your best interest. God is more able to judge what we need than we are for ourselves.
The ultimate conclusion of Christ’s instruction in this passage is that God’s providence is not a consequence of your performance or your works. There is great comfort in this. It should bring you peace of mind knowing that God’s will be done even if you fail. Even if the enemy wins the day we can rest assured he will not win forever. Prayer is important, but you have security knowing that God isn’t going to change His plan for you merely because you failed to pray. He’s not a genie in a bottle — He is Jesus Christ the King of kings. He is the final authority. He is sovereign over all things everywhere and He is with us right now. That’s something for which all of us can be thankful for, and that’s something for which all of us can say amen.
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