Matthew 6:5-8
~3 min read
“…but their motivation to pray is not for God to hear…”
Christians ought to pray always. Our prayers are directed to God who hears us. Sadly, there are some people who pray but their motivation to pray is not for God to hear, rather it is for the people to hear. They desire for the people to hear their prayers so that they would be applauded for their spirituality.
Jesus condemned the hypocrites who loved to pray while standing in the synagogues and corners of the streets to be seen by men. Those hypocrites wanted to be “rewarded” with the applause of men, and Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, They have their reward (Matthew 6:5).
There was another problem and that was the people would pray like the pagans with vanity or meaningless repetition thinking that God would hear them because of their “many” words. Does God not know, and does He need us to repeat so many times in order to hear us? Most certainly not!
Dear children, God wants us to pray, and speak to Him, and tell Him all our concerns. Jesus said that when we pray in secret, God hears and He will answer us (c.f. v.6). It does not mean that we should not pray publicly or openly like what we used to do in a prayer meeting. What it means is that we must never pray for men to hear and praise us. Our prayers must never be used to show off our spirituality. We do not pray like the pagans with vain repetitions because God knows everything about us even before we ask Him. We need to pray truthfully and meaningfully, speaking to God from our hearts.
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