Matthew 6 contains some of the best known teaching of Jesus on the topic of prayer, and in it, Jesus gives us an example of how to pray in The Lord’s Prayer.

All through the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches with the use of contrasting statements: This is what we should do, versus this is what we shouldn’t do. This is exactly what he does with the topic of prayer in Matthew 6:5-15.

To start off, Jesus gives an example of the wrong way to pray, and tells his followers not to be like the hypocrites. These are people who make a public show of their piety for the reason of drawing attention to themselves. Their motives are wrong. Their desire was to be seen by others, and not to have a conversation and communion with God. That’s what the hypocrites do. The word “hypocrite” is an old word for actor, or one who impersonates another. It was used to describe someone who pretended to be someone else, or who wore a mask. It was used originally to describe actors on a stage, but came to mean anyone who was pretending to be something he is not…And it’s not usually used in a good sense.

Instead, Jesus suggests that we go to an inner room, someplace where we can withdraw from the world, shut out the distractions, and commune with God. Find a private place to pray, and don’t draw attention to yourself from others. The only attention you should be after is that of God. And when you withdraw, speak to him genuinely, and from the heart. Why? Because God already knows what’s on your heart. So just talk to him about it.

Then Jesus gives his followers a model prayer to follow. He doesn’t expect us to simply repeat this word for word all the time, even though that’s alright to do. What Jesus intends this to be is a pattern. These are some of the elements that we should include in prayer. First, it looks to the Kingdom of God, and then second, it looks to our earthly needs.

To begin, Jesus instructs us to direct our hearts towards the goodness of God, to focus on his holiness and glory. He teaches us to be looking for his Kingdom to come, and to prioritize that over our own desires. He urges us to seek God’s will over our own.

Next, Jesus turns the focus of the prayer onto our human needs, things like our need for daily food, our need for forgiveness and our need to forgive others, and our need to avoid temptation. These are the things we should seek.

Note especially the pronouns in this prayer: “Our… us… our… us… our… we… our… us… us…” There is not a single first-person singular pronoun. They are all plural. We cannot pray the prayer alone – it has no room for selfishness. I can be alone, with God, and pray, but I must have the whole world on my heart! In other words, this is not about me… It never is.

There is a lot more that could be said about this passage, and a lot more that we could dig out of it. But allow me to encourage you in this: Learning about prayer is good, but it is no substitute for just praying. We can examine and study and read about prayer all day long, and there is a significant amount of excellent information out there about prayer. But none of it is a good substitute for simply putting this discipline into action.

So, just pray. And watch to see how God responds in your life. I suspect you’ll be amazed.

Question: How is your habit of prayer? What helps you to focus on this discipline? You can leave a comment by clicking here.