by By Erick Muriithi
I once heard a popular televangelist ask — If you were living at the time of Elijah, would you have been considered part of the prayer department? His point was that his congregants don’t pray enough.
We often get it wrong on the matter of prayer. For example many believe:
1. That there are prayers that entice God.
This is prevalent in prosperity gospel circles. I once heard a Nigerian man say a while back that there are prayers that are so boring to heaven that God delegates them to angels, while others he pushes the angels aside and answers himself. Now, this is a satanic lie! It lays the burden upon the person to be clever enough to say the right stuff so that somehow God will give personal attention and respond. It’s a system of works and no grace; just pure attempts at selfish manipulation of God to do your bidding.
2. There are prayer warriors.
The idea is that there are people who are on another level of praying, and somehow their prayers are answered quicker. The he length of their prayer time is usually the determinant of how much of a prayer warrior one is. It is a brazen lie. Paul says in Romans 8, “We do not know how to pray as we should….” None of us is a prayer warrior. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us in line with the will of God.
Jesus also refutes this error emphatically in Mathew 6:7-9 ESV[7]: “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. [8] Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. [9] Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…””
In the opening verses of this chapter, Jesus deals with hypocritical religion of the day that emphasized outward piety and that aimed at pleasing men rather than God. Jesus taught his listeners that their giving, their praying and their fasting were not to be outward shows aimed at pleasing people. He refutes the idea that these are works that somehow, if just done with the right formula, will move God to do our bidding.
How God centered prayer as illustrated by Jesus Christ
1. Don’t heap up empty phrases or think you’ll be heard for praying longest.
The gentiles thought that somehow, by increasing the number of phrases and length of their prayers, they could get the gods to hear them and grant their requests. Prayer was a way to manipulate the gods to do one’s bidding. The Greek word used by Jesus to describe empty phrases id batalogeo –*empty logic* — heaping up religious platitudes hoping somehow to charm God into answering your prayers.
Jesus says, “They think they’ll be heard because of their much speaking.” It is works based self centered praying.
2. Prayer is a response to God’s grace, not an attempt to earn his attention.
Jesus says, “Do not be like them, for your Father in heaven knows what you need before you ask him.”
What is Jesus saying? That the fundamental problem in the prayer of the gentiles comes from their wrong view of God. Jesus shows that prayer is a response to the gospel. He is reminding them, that they have a Father in heaven. They have been adopted. Where it was written, “Not my people” now it says “Children of the living God”. God loves them, and is concerned for them, in such a way that he knows their needs before they ask. Jesus is telling them that God is not a hostile capricious deity whose opinion you need to sway with your multiple empty arguments. No! God is your father. He loves you, he cares for you. He knows your needs in advance. He cares for you so deeply that none of your needs are little or insignificant to him. You ought not to go to God like the gentiles go to their gods, hoping to win favor before they can make their requests. No! God is your father. Pray with this in mind. Pray in response to this. This is gospel-centered prayer. It has a right view of God and is in view of his grace.
3. Pray then like this… Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
I have heard well meaning preachers say that this means that in prayer you first call God father, and then show reverence by saying, ‘hallowed be your name”. But that would be legalism and moralism. It is a gross misunderstanding. It pays no attention to the flow of the prayer that Jesus Christ taught. Jesus says, “When you pray say… Father in heaven”, reminding you of the gospel. A result of this, “hallowed be your name” will be a natural cry of worship for a soul that is enlivened and strengthened by the gospel.
Constantly in the psalms, the psalmist says, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good”. That’s the point of this first section. Adoration is not some pretentious attempt to try and follow a certain prayer formula. It is a response to the gospel — “Father in heaven”. God and sinners reconciled. We have been given the right to call God father. God is for us. None shall bring a charge against us. So we burst out in praise saying, “hallowed be your name”. It flows naturally from the deep well of the good news.
And then, “thy kingdom come”, will naturally flow.
Prayer is a means of grace. And it is in the gospel of Jesus Christ that we find grace. Prayer reminds us of the result of the gospel. So that everything we ask in prayer, we do so in response to the gospel.
Consider the Old Testament prayers. They were always prayed within the context of God’s deliverance from Egypt.Or they would say, “God of our father Abraham”. Why did they say this? It was a reminder that this God had bound himself to them by covenant, lovingly owning them as his people. And thus they would pray assured that God was for them.
Likewise, praying in the name of Jesus Christ isn’t some magic spell to get God to hear us. It is a means of grace too. It reminds us of God’s love and grace and kindness to us. It glorifies God. It evokes worship from our hearts as we are reminded of the good news of salvation.
Prayer was never meant to be a burden. It was designed to be a means of grace, not a yoke to bear. And yet so much teaching on prayer today has it as a yoke — something that leaves people wondering, “how in the world can I attain that level?” What a pitiful thing graceless prayer is. Nothing robs Christian’s of joyful prayer today than the insistence on rituals such as “speaking in tongues” and “feeling breakthroughs”.
Any teaching on prayer that insists on such things is a thief of grace, a robber of the gospel, tasteless food that should not just be avoided, but shunned altogether. Christ Jesus intended for us to be strengthened and encouraged even in prayer; not by some feeling or in the confidence that a ritual has been met, but because of our God — confidence in his care for us demonstrated in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Erick Muriithi is a writer and Bible student who loves to engage in polemic and apologetic discussions. He is involved in campus ministry at Egerton University, Kenya. Read more of him at https://erickmuriithi.art.blog/author/erickmuriithi/
