Matthew 6:5-8
Prayer in Both Directions

"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 men. I tell you the truth, 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."

New International Version

Some of you, as you read the passage above, recognized this scripture selection as the passage just before the "Lord's Prayer". Jesus gave us a beautiful and simple example of how to pray in the verses that follow these. He countered the pompous wordiness of public prayers the disciples had heard with simple, fundamental thoughts of our place in relationship with God. The verses above support that model prayer by instructing us that prayer is much more than saying the right words.

Throughout history, prayer frequently has been seen as a one-way action. Prayer was humanity's attempt to influence the gods; it was a way to gain what people wanted, or to remove what people didn't want, by requesting favors from supernatural forces. Elaborate spring religious rituals in many cultures would appeal to the gods for bountiful crops. We see an example of strong attempts to coerce a miracle in 1 Kings 18 as the priests of Baal begged their god to send fire from heaven. In fact, the dictionary on my desk defines "to pray" primarily as a synonym for "to entreat" and "to implore". Only in the third definition for "pray" does this dictionary describe prayer as talking to God. We oversimplify the lesson of the Lord's Prayer if we teach praying as merely saying beautiful, meaningful words to God, or worse, as using the right set of words.

In the passage above, Jesus first reminds us of the personal nature of prayer. This is not to minimize the importance of corporate prayer, where in fellowship with God's people, we together humble ourselves in prayer before God. However, God wants a relationship with individuals, not merely congregations, and even in corporate prayer, God listens to each person. Jesus instructs us to get away when we pray, so that there is no one else to distract our focus from God, no one else to impress with the eloquent phrases we use, and no one else to overhear as we spill our deepest hurts, sins, and fears out to God. There is also no one around to interrupt as God responds to us, for prayer goes in both directions: from us to God, and from God to us.

Jesus also confronts the misconception that we must tell God what we need. Considering the pagan spring rituals I mentioned earlier--did those worshipers really think that the spirits to which they were praying forgot that people need to eat? At times, though, our concept of prayer is almost as flawed, as we focus too much attention on everything we should remember to ask God, while Jesus tells us that God already knows our needs, our wants, and our pains.

If God doesn't need for us to pray about what we need--about "our daily bread"--then it is we who need to verbalize our needs and wants before God. We need to raise our desires and fears to God and wait for God's good and perfect response. Nothing we desire should be "out of bounds" in our prayers, for God has already read those thoughts in our minds. Frequently, however, God's answer to our prayers is to change our desires, to teach us to want something better, and to mold us and develop us, as we are open before God.

So, when you pray, what prayers are you saying, or not saying, because other people might think your prayer was inappropriate? If personal prayer is only about you and God, why are you allowing others' opinions interfere?

When you pray, are you praying generically for your "daily bread", or are you getting more specific to what is truly bothering you? When a child comes to a parent and says "I hurt", the parent's first response is to ask for more specifics: "Where does it hurt?" The same holds true in our prayer lives--when we ask for, say, "inner peace", God will push us to examine what in our heart is disturbing our peace, and when we are willing to recognize it, God can work in us to overcome it.

When you pray, are you feeling like God isn't hearing your requests? We all feel like that sometimes, for we can be so focused on what we perceive to be the problem that we miss how God is resolving the real problem. Most of us also have an impatience that is the opposite of God's attitude, for we often do not see how the "short cuts" we want have long-term detrimental effects. God can do anything, but people change slowly, and often, the best answers to our prayers are what God does to mold us and others into better followers.

Pray without ceasing, Paul instructed us. Live life in the confidence that God knows every thought, every need, and every desire we have--and God loves us anyway. Embrace God joyfully in prayer, because God longs to embrace each of us personally in prayer.