Prayer as Communion with God

“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 our Father who sees 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.” + Matthew 6v1-8

Here Jesus gives us instructions on how to pray, and how not to pray. When our Lord gives us instructions, it is wise to listen and obey, and foolish to ignore. I would like to begin with two ways we are not to pray, and go from there.

1. We are not to Pray Boastfully

Jesus begins by telling us not to be like the hypocrites. They pray loudly and proudly in public. Their prayers are all for show and for personal glory, not the glory of God. They long for the approval of others in their prayers. Their prayers are not God-centered or genuine at all. They want others to see them praying and to praise them for how spiritual they are and how mature they must be. This type of prayer is vain, empty, and sinful. Even more so, this type of prayer shows a grave misunderstanding of our depravity, and a terribly low view of God. In other words, a person who prays like this has a fundamental misunderstanding of the gospel. Not only is it wrong to pray boastfully before God, but, in reality, we have absolutely nothing to boast of before God. Apart from Christ, sinful man stands before a holy God with nothing good to show of himself. And when we have been saved, we still have nothing to boast about before God or others. We are saved not by our own good works, or efforts, or our ability to choose God. We are saved by the sheer grace of God. We are saved entirely by Christ’s life, death, and resurrection for us. It is only because of Christ alone, through grace alone, that we are saved. This is why Paul says, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Our only boast is in the cross.

2. We are not to Pray with Empty Phrases

Jesus then tells us not to heap up empty phrases when we pray. This means we are not to use fluffy, flowery, or showy words in prayer. Praying is not about saying the right amount or combination of churchy, spiritual sounding words. They are empty and meaningless. There is no magic formula of words in our prayers to God. Prayer is not so much about our words, as it is our hearts. Again, praying with big, fancy, religious words shows a misunderstanding of God. How? If we think we can fool God with our words, we fail to understand that God sees our hearts and minds and knows all. We may be able to fool other people with our exceptional vocabularies, but we cannot fool God.

 

These prohibitions in prayer give us meaningful insight into the meaning of prayer. Since God knows what we need before we speak it, then why pray at all? One valid answer, that is present in this text, is that prayer is a means of communion with God. One way we know this is because Jesus tells us here to pray in secret. Since we are not to pray in order to show off to other people, and if we have nothing to boast about before God, and since God knows all we need before we pray, this must mean that our praying in secret to God is a way of having fellowship with God.

 

If prayer is a means of communion with God, then why not pray boastfully? If we have nothing to boast about, then our boasting is lying. You cannot have true fellowship with God, or anyone for that matter, when we are dishonest with them. Communion with God comes through honesty with God.

 

If prayer is a means of communion with God, then why not offer up fancy words? Often times, fancy words in prayer reveal a lack of depth in prayer. They are shallow and empty. You cannot have real communion with God if your speech is shallow.

 

While avoiding this pitfall and praying rightly before God can be a vehicle of authentic fellowship with God, it is not avoiding the wrong things and walking in the right things that earns that communion. Ultimately, it is our union with Christ that provides these means of communion with God. Repeatedly in this passage Jesus refers to God as our Father. This is astounding. Let us not pass over this. How can this be? It is our union with Christ that makes God our Father; that allows us to have communion with him in prayer. Apart from Christ we can have no communion with God. Apart from Christ, God is not our Father; we are his enemies. But Christ, through the cross, has made God’s enemies his friends. Not only that, but sons and daughters also. Because of Christ we have the privilege and ability to commune with God, our Father, in prayer.