When my kids lived at home, they asked the same question daily: “What’s for dinner?”
For the record, I fed my sweet cherubs each day. While their daily questioning frustrated me, I knew their hunger made them impatient and forgetful.
As humans, we experience emotional and spiritual hunger that we long to be satisfied. Those deep pangs for peace, purpose, healing, or deliverance can also make us impatient
and forgetful.
Thankfully, God never becomes frustrated with us. He’s patient with our impatience and continues to be faithful even though we’re easily forgetful. The tragedy is how we miss out on an invitation to experience God’s soothing, loving presence when our prayers are more focused on our problems than praying to experience Him.
As Jesus ramped up to his core teaching about the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6, he addressed a pagan prayer practice that his followers didn’t need to do in Matthew 6:7 (NLT):
When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.
Why did the pagans repeat their prayers? Pagan gods were characterized as selfish or greedy, only acting when it was in their best interest. The tragic reality was that pagan gods had no power. But, the pagans repeated their prayers because that seemed to be their only hope in making something happen.
This is not the case for God’s children! Our God has all power, and there is nothing too hard for Him to do! In light of this, Jesus gives his followers a warning and encouragement in the following verse:
Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!
Matthew 6:8 (NLT)
What does Jesus want you to pay attention to in this statement? He teaches us to put our faith in God, not in prayer. The difference between persistent prayer and repeating our prayers is who you’re focused on when you’re praying.
Repeaters only talk about their problems to God, often failing to talk about God to their problems. Ultimately, Jesus reminds his followers, me and you, that God already knows what we need even before we ask. Your problems are not a problem for God, but your lack of focus on God will create problems for you!
In my new six-week Bible study, Matthew: Pray Like This, I introduce a simple prayer framework that starts our prayers with a focus on God. This aligns with how Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13.
Rather than making your problems the central focus of your prayers, begin with centering on God in these four areas:
God IS — Focusing on God’s character and nature
God HAS — Recounting God’s faithfulness to humanity
God CAN — Celebrating God’s power and sovereignty over all things
God WILL — Remembering and clinging to God’s promises as you live out your purpose
Matthew: Pray Like This study teaches participants to center prayer around God, not us. This aligns with Jesus’ foundational teaching on prayer:
Pray like this: Our Father in Heaven, may your name be kept holy.
Matthew 6:9 (NLT)
This framework enlarges our view of God so that He’s bigger in our hearts and minds than our biggest anxieties or fears. Also, centering on God first opens our eyes to God’s spiritual vision, so we view our earthly lives through God’s eternal plan. This perspective shift gives us hope and fuels us to live out God’s great adventure of faith and purpose for our lives! As a bonus, this type of prayer opens space for us to feel safe and cared for by God.
Matthew: Pray Like This also features “Daily Pray Like This” exercises for those who desire to expand their words for prayer. It’s common for Christians to feel self-conscious about
praying aloud or even in private. This Bible study combines scripture prayer prompts to build confidence in prayer by the end of the six-week study.
Additionally, Matthew: Pray Like This offers a wide variety of tools to personalize, engage in creative prayer practices, and learn from other scholarly and ministry voices on prayer. The study is flexible for personal or group study with supplemental discussion questions.
Corrie ten Boom once asked, “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?” For those who’ve used prayer as a spare tire more than they’d like, Matthew: Pray Like This offers
you the tools to make prayer your steering wheel so that you experience the life-transforming power of prayer.