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The Purpose of Prayer:
We should have such a burden for those who are perishing without Christ that we’re driven to entreat God, who is the Savior, that all people might be reached with the good news that there is a Mediator who gave Himself as the ransom for their sins. Prayer is to impress you with God, much more than it is to impress God with you or your needs. You don’t pray because you want God to think you’re holy, and you don’t pray to get what you can get or get God to give you what you want. You pray rather to allow God to be on display. “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” John 14:13 (NKJV). Jesus said, “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it, in order that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Why will God hear your prayer and answer? In order that the Father may be glorified. Prayer is ever and always, first and foremost, a recognition of God’s majestic glory and an act of submission to it. All our petitions, all our passions, all our supplications, all our requests, all our needs, all our trials, our problems are all subject, look back at the prayer again. To His name, verse 9, and His kingdom, verse 10, and His will, verse 10. All prayer begins there. Then you have in verse 11, give us, verse 12, forgive us, verse 13, and lead us. But the giving, forgiving and leading of us comes only when God is put in the prior place.
Prayer has as its purpose the uplifting of God, the setting of God in His rightful place, the manifestation of His majesty, and His sovereign will, and we bring all other items into concourse with that. Prayer is for God. That’s why we’ve outlined the prayer this way, “Our Father, which art in heaven,” that’s the paternity of God. “Hallowed be Thy name,” that’s the priority of God. “Thy kingdom come,” that’s the program of God. “Thy will be done,” that’s the purpose of God. “Give us this day our daily bread,” that’s the provision of God. “And forgive us our debts,” that’s the pardon of God. “And lead us not into temptation,” the protection of God. “For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. Amen,” the pre-eminence of God. The whole of the model prayer focuses on God. And precisely does this deal with the issue at hand when Jesus gave it. For the Pharisees and the scribes and the Jewish people who followed their teaching had taken prayer from what God intended it to be, a vehicle for His display, and they had make it into a man-made perverted traditional exercise by which they drew attention to themselves. They used their prayers hypocritically to show how spiritual they were. They assumed that in their prayers they were informing God of things He didn’t know, at least that seems to be implied in the prior text.
Praying connects our soul to God, and it allows us to know Him more intimately than just a surface relationship. And they actually went into vain repetition like the heathens did, as if they could badger God into giving them what they demanded. They had created a kind of prayer that was illegitimate, perverted, substandard, non-scriptural. Jesus then in confronting them here sets the record straight. “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” Matthew 6:5–15 (NKJV).
In chapter 6, the Model Prayer, Jesus said, your giving is not according to God’s standard. He says, your fasting is not according to God’s standard. And here in this section, your praying is not according to God’s standard. Now let Me set it right; here is how prayer ought to be. Verse 9, “After this manner, therefore, pray ye.” Not the way you’ve been doing it. Here is the way to pray, not self-centered, self-righteous prayers, but prayers that focus on God. And He begins with God’s paternity, “Our Father, who art in heaven.”