Matthew 6:7-15 - Babbling Prayer

This passage of Scripture will be a challenge to many of us. I know for me personally it really opened my eyes to what prayer is really all about. Prayer is my lining myself up with the purposes of God and acknowledging my utter dependence on Him for everything in my life. If you were to look at a transcript of my prayer life over the last ten years you would probably get the impression that prayer is primarily concerned with informing God about our needs and that this is best done by saying the same thing over and over, attempting to wear God down and get Him to do what we want. Matthew 6:7-15 shows us that this is precisely the opposite of what prayer should be.

First, let’s talk about how this passage fits into the context. In this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses acts of piety, including alms-giving, prayer, and fasting, warning the disciples against doing these practices in order to be noticed by men. 6:1 is the key verse for this section, which ends in 6:18. This key verse reads, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” Within this section, the passage at hand functions as an excursus, or parenthetical section, between the teachings on prayer and fasting. In vs. 5-6, Jesus has already commented on praying out of a desire to be seen as pious. Now he turns to the act of praying itself.

Verses 7-8 address the issue of thoughtless prayer. In v.7, Jesus warns us not to use meaningless repetition. It literally means, ‘do not babble.’ He compares this kind of prayer to the prayers of the Gentiles, who think that the more they say, the better chance they will be answered.

You may have noticed in your own life a tendency to do this. Sometimes I am guilty of saying the same thing in as many different ways as possible. The next day I say the same basic prayers just varying the vocabulary used. Then there are times when I pray and find my mind wandering and thinking about a dozen other things rather than about what I am saying to the Lord.

In v.8, Jesus exposes the false conception of prayer that leads to meaningless repetition. “So do not be like them [the Gentiles]; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” We assume that we are telling God things He doesn’t know. But He does know what we need and it is therefore unnecessary for us to say the same thing over and over. We also, whether in theory or not – certainly in practice – assume that the bulk of prayer is our asking God to do things for us. Jesus will show in the following verses that this is not the case. Of course, God wants to hear our requests, but when that is the mainstay of our prayer lives, we are missing the point.

I think there are a couple of things we should take from these two verses. First, our requests should be to the point without saying the same thing over and over. God knows what is going on. Sure we should pray consistently and with persistence, but I don’t think we should spend a lot of time helping God to see all the reasons why it would behoove Him to come down on our side on this or that issue. As we’ll see in the model prayer, prayer is a mixture of request and submission, with submission being the higher priority.

So what does this mean for the model that Jesus sets for us as we see Him in the Gospels spending entire nights in prayer? Again, we assume based on our false conception of prayer that Jesus spent that whole time asking for things. We see in Jesus’ prayers not only requests for Himself, but supplication on the behalf of others, and the submission of Himself to the Father’s will.

Second, prayer should be characterized by reverence for God. When we approach the throne, we should feel the weight of that act. We are talking to Almighty God, the sovereign, omniscient Creator. An awareness of His infinite holiness should preclude any mindless, mechanical speech. It is irreverence that allows us to utter babbling prayers. If I had the opportunity to speak with the President, my head would undoubtedly be in the game. How much more should my thoughts be intent on the Lord when I approach Him in prayer.

Much of our reverence for God has been lost in the last several decades as we have become more concerned with pleasing men than pleasing the Lord. I lay the blame at the feet of pastors who have assumed a ‘do what works’ mentality in reference to ministry methodology. The attempt to look and act cool to the world has resulted in such a casual atmosphere in our churches that God is treated like He’s our kid brother or drinking buddy. A pastor who does not model reverence for the Lord from the pulpit by being careful with the Word, sets the tone for the church, which results in a congregation that is able to enter prayer feeling like they are talking to their next door neighbor.

Of course, God is our Father. He is not a God who is far away, but a God who has come near. That does not mean, however, that He has changed from the Holy God we see in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4. Due to the sacrifice of the Son, we have the privilege of approaching the throne of grace with boldness, but we must do so with reverence. It is that reverence that puts us in a posture to do what Jesus shows us in His model prayer – align ourselves with His sovereign will and acknowledge our complete dependence on Him. When we approach Him with reverence, it is natural to say, “Your will be done” and “We need you, Lord.”

I have found it to be good for my spirit to pray on my knees. There is nothing super spiritual about it, but it helps me to remember who I am talking to and what a privilege it is to do so. It puts me in a reverent frame of mind and spirit.

Next time, we’ll look at the first half of the model prayer. Drink deep.