HOW DO YOU PRAY?

“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:5-6).

Jesus instructed His disciples not to be like the hypocrites when they pray, for they pray out of the wrong motive. The insincerity of their prayers is seen in the fact that they prayed to be seen of men. They were missing the most essential dynamic of prayer—it is a conversation with God, not a show.

In Matthew 15 the Pharisees complained to Jesus because His disciples were not following the ceremonial washing of hands before the meal. Jesus responded by saying to them, “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:7-9). They had developed a religion with lots of external activity but no sincere love for God in the heart.

Hypocrisy is something we must all guard against. To do this, we must maintain a real and vital relationship with our Heavenly Father. When we begin to draw back from the Lord in our hearts, the temptation is usually to keep up appearances. The temptation is to continue to go through the outward form of religion hoping no one will notice the change that’s occurred in our hearts. This is hypocrisy.

In order to have the favor of God when we pray, we must approach Him with a sincere heart, and that means that we love Him as our Father. And because we love Him, we willingly and sincerely keep His commandments.

Yes, we will still have our struggles and difficulties in this life! There is a great deal of difference between a person trying to do the right thing and have some difficulties and a person who has resolutely chosen to do the wrong thing and tries to justify it. Failure doesn’t make you a hypocrite. Pretense and insincerity do!