Jesus Taught His Disciples How to Pray

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructed His disciples about prayer. He began His teaching saying:

“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

“And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” (Matthew 6:5-8)

In this first part of His teaching on prayer, Jesus told us that we are not to make showy public prayers to be seen by men. Such praying tends to exalt the one praying as one who is very “spiritual” and tends to shift the focus toward the one who is praying instead of where the focus of prayer should be, which is upon God.

There may be times when we are called upon to lead a prayer among a group of people. At such times, let our prayers emphasize God’s power, love, and mercy, as well as our dependence upon Him for every need of our lives. This was the kind of prayer that Jehoshaphat brought before the Lord in 2 Chronicles 20:6-12, and his prayer was heard.

Jesus also taught us that we should not keep babbling repetitively in our prayers like pagans do, because God our Father knows what we need before we even ask it. Our Father is aware of the smallest details of our lives, even down to the number of hairs on our head (Matthew 10:30). He knows what is best for us as He fulfills His purpose for our lives, and that purpose is revealed to us through His answers to our prayers, and through

the circumstances and events of our lives, which unfold as He has ordained them.

In this passage of Matthew 6, Jesus first taught His disciples how not to pray. As He continued, He then taught them how they should pray, using an example or model prayer, which we all know as the Lord’s Prayer. His prayer is recorded in Matthew 6:9-13. A line by line examination of the Lord’s Prayer shows us what elements should be included in our prayers to God.

In the first line of the prayer, Jesus taught that we are to pray bringing our requests to God, “Our Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). In John 16, Jesus also taught us that we are to bring our requests to the Father,

asking “in His name”. Jesus said that we would receive whatever we asked in His name (John 16:23-24).

Praying in Jesus’ name means that we are to pray in accordance with the word of God as revealed in the Scriptures, in complete obedience and submission to all that is taught in His word. And as we are taught in God’s word, we are to submit our own will to His will, as His sovereign plan and will for each of us is revealed through the circumstances, conditions and limitations of our lives (Luke 14:27, 33, Philippians 2:5-8, others).

Continuing in Jesus’ model prayer, the words “Hallowed be Your

name” (Matthew 6:9) show us that praise should be given to God the Father in our prayers. Praise is due Him, as is thanksgiving, for the gift that He gave to us when He called us to faith in His Son, whereby we have been given the privilege of praying to Him as “Our Father”.

The following lines of Jesus’ model prayer read: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10). These words again instruct us that our prayers should include an attitude of submission to, and acceptance of, God’s will for our lives.

Jesus demonstrated His acceptance of God’s will for His life, even when faced with the burden of overwhelming sorrow to the point of death. Once again we recall that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to His Father knowing that everything was possible for Him, and asking Him to take away the cup of suffering and death that He knew He was about to drink at Calvary. But above all else, Jesus yielded Himself to His Father’s

will, even when His Father’s will for Him was a painful and humiliating death on a cross (Mark 14:32-36).

Continuing with Jesus’ model prayer we read: “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). These words teach us that we should ask God for the things that we need in life, the things that are necessary to sustain our lives such as food, clothing, a place to live, etc. Notice that Jesus taught we are to ask for our “daily bread”. We are not to project far out into the future with what we think we might face at that time.

God does not want us to be burdened by the worry of what we imagine might come about in our tomorrows. Therefore Jesus gave us this promise: if we will seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness as the priority of our lives, then God will give to us all of the things that we need to sustain our lives. With this promise, we are told not to worry about our tomorrows or what troubles our tomorrows may bring (Matthew 6:33-34).

When we make it our priority to obey God’s word and submit ourselves to the place of service in life that He has ordained for us, then He promises that He will provide for the needs of all of our tomorrows, as many tomorrows as He has allotted to us.

Continuing in the Lord’s Prayer we read: “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12). Forgiveness is necessary and vital in the Christian life. We have sinned against God, and by the wounds of His Son Jesus Christ we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). Our sins made necessary in the sight of God our Father the painful and humiliating death that Jesus suffered in His crucifixion. His sacrifice was the propitiation, or payment that restores favor, for our sins. Just as God forgives our sins, He requires of us that we forgive the transgressions of those who sin against us.

In the last verse of Jesus’ model prayer, we read: “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:13). In this verse Jesus taught us that we are to ask God for His help in the ongoing struggle with temptation and sin that we will experience as long as we live on the earth.

When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray by the example of this “Model Prayer”, He taught them that they should pray to God their Father. He also taught that their prayers should include praise to God. And He

taught that their prayers should include submission to the will of God. This submission means praying with an attitude and an understanding that the

answers to our prayers, whether they are answered “yes” or “no”, should be accepted as the answer given by our loving Father, who gives “what is good to those who ask him” (Matthew 7:11).

If some burden is not lifted as we have asked, it is because God has willed that we should endure it, at least for a time, for our eternal good and glory. When God’s answer to our prayers to have some burden lifted from our lives is “no”, we have the assurance that the grace and the strength of Christ will be provided to us in sufficient measure to meet our need. The Scriptures reveal to us that His power at work in our lives is made perfect in our own weakness. This is to say that the power of Christ at work in our lives is at its greatest at the point of our own greatest weakness and need.

This realization resulted in the joy that Paul expressed in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. He did not have his “thorn” in the flesh removed as he had requested in prayer. (The Greek word in the original text which is translated as “thorn” could also be translated as “painful physical ailment”). But with the Lord’s answer of “no” to his prayer, Paul did receive joy and sustaining grace sufficient for his need, and he received further insight into God’s ways so that he could comfort and encourage us with the encouragement that God had given to him. (Consider 2 Corinthians 1:5).

With this understanding of God’s provision for our weakness and need, Paul came to understand that when he was weak, then he was strong. It was revealed to Paul that when his own strength faltered, Christ’s power and grace given to him to meet his need grew greater, and so it is with us.