Author: Josh King

The biggest problem with our prayers is not that they are too short, but too small.  Our biggest sin in prayer is not the infrequency of our petitions, but the finitude of our petitions.  Small prayers are fit only for a small God, small prayers blaspheme!  Don’t strive to pray more as much as to pray big.

This language is not meant to push you toward using prayer for more health and wealth, but beyond that.  Praying big does not mean praying for more measurable stuff, but praying for the infinite.  Stuff is measurable, God is not.  Also this does not eliminate prayer for daily needs or casting all our anxieties upon Him (I Peter 5:7), but rather establishes the proper setting for such requests.

The Disciple’s Prayer is comprised of six requests that can be divided into two groups of three requests each.  The pronouns are your clue to the division.  The first three all concern “Your”; not your your, but His Your.  The final three concern “us”.  The first three are worshipful longings, the last three are needs humbly requested.

So prayer is to begin with God.  Prayer will reveal our priorities.  What you pray for (content) is what you pray for (motive).  That is, what you request in prayer, is why you pray.  The first petition reveals what should be first in our hearts, the glory and renown of God.  If this isn’t first, your prayers are idolatrous.  Pray big or sin, these are your options.

Prayer seeks the saving rule and reign of God to come and regenerate men’s hearts so that they hallow His name and so that His will is done on earth as it is in heaven.  The answer to our deepest longings in prayer should fall like a mountain thrust to the earth from the heavens totally rearranging the landscape of this world and we are asking only for feathers.

Pray prayers as big as God.  Pray prayers for God.

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence—as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!  When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.  From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.  You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?  – Isaiah 64:1-5

Imagine two scenarios.

Scenario one:  I never talk to Bethany in private.  She tries to talk with me but I am never interested, until we get in public.  When other eyes are looking besides her own, and when other ears are listening besides her own then I seem greatly interested in her.  Why the difference?  The conversation that seems to be about her, isn’t about her, it’s about me.  It’s about putting on a show, putting up a façade to give an impression.

Scenario two:  I am away on a mission trip.  I hardly ever call Bethany until the last couple of days.  Those conversations are liberally littered with “I love yous.”  In our final conversation the day before I arrive I mention to her how horrible the food has been and how wonderful it would be if she would meet me at the airport with a Webber’s Root Beer and Burger.  She does not bring one, perhaps she is planning that we all go there as a family.  I am furious upon seeing her without the root beer and burger.   She then realizes that “all the right words”  that I said previous in our conversations were only empty phrases. The conversation wasn’t about how much I loved her, but about how much I loved root beer; she was simply the means to the end. I was not after her heart, I was after beverage and sustenance.

Scenario one is conversing like a Pharisee, scenario two is conversing like a pagan.  Prayer is dangerous!  The other acts of piety dealt with in 6:1-18 receive only one warning, prayer receives two.  The methods are not what is being contrasted here.  If you read this passage and only change your method, it is as if you put a bandage on your arm to deal with profuse internal bleeding.

In scenario one, now dealing with our text, vv. 5-6, the issue isn’t posture; for instance, the tax collector as well as the Pharisee pray standing in Luke 18:9-14.  The issue isn’t public prayer as opposed to private prayer; there are numerous examples of public prayer that are blessed by God in scripture.  The issue is praying in public to be seen and praised by others.  The issue is prayer for publicity, not prayer in public.  The issue isn’t the method, but the motive.

In scenario two, vv. 7-8, the issue isn’t repetition.  Jesus would repeat the same prayer in Gethsemane.  The pagan worshipper thought he had to appease or flatter the gods to get what he wanted.  He would use certain formulas so that the gods would listen.  The reason Christians are not to pray in this way is theological; we have a loving omniscient Father.  The issue here is not method either, it is the mindset with which we come to prayer.  Theology shapes your prayers profoundly, I would say more than anything.

If you want to grow in prayer don’t look for new technique, look to your God.  Ever more important than method is your motive and mindset.

Too often when we struggle with prayer we focus on the wrong things.  We focus on praying better instead of focusing on knowing better the one to whom we pray.  And we focus on our need for discipline rather than our need for God.  – Kevin DeYoung

Perhaps we can learn how to give by observing a certain hypocrite and thinking through why his giving in particular is especially ridiculous.  R.W. Glenn tells of a certain man who brought in eight figures yet consistently boasted of his giving.  He would speak of how he gave a thousand dollars to this charity and to that cause.  His giving is repulsive first because as we see in our text, it is not about God, it is not even about others, it is about self glorification.  But secondly it is ridiculous because it’s nothing, he is giving away pennies.  We think it would be easy to give away a few thousand if you posses such wealth.  Here, I think is where we can learn from the hypocrite.

Giving liberally might be thought to be easier in proportion to the wealth one already possesses, but wouldn’t it be equally true, no, more true, that it would be even easier to give in proportion to the reward one expects to receive for giving.  If I am told I will be given one hundred dollars for every Washington that I give away…

For the Christian both truths allow him to be liberally generous.  He is already immeasurably rich in Christ, and He is promised yet more for giving in a way that shows His devotion to God.  Focusing on the reward makes our giving unselfconscious.  We don’t boast because we don’t think ourselves to be giving but receiving.  Let’s focus on the scandal of the reward and the nature of the reward and see how it works toward this end.

First the very idea of reward is scandalous; how can God reward the spiritually bankrupt?  How can the poor in spirit merit anything?  They can’t!  Even when we do all that we should have done, we have only done that which was our duty (Luke 17:7-10).  Consider three further reasons why the idea of reward is scandalous.

1.  All our acts, even our best acts are stained, contaminated with sin.  They are acceptable only in Christ.  John Owen wisely wrote,

Believers obey Christ as the one by whom our obedience is accepted by God.  Believers know all their duties are weak, imperfect, and unable to abide in God’s presence.  Therefore they look to Christ as the one who bears the iniquity of their holy things, who adds incense to their prayers, gathers out all the weeds from their duties and makes them acceptable to God.

2.  The reward is immeasurably disproportionate to the service rendered.  This is a repeated motif through the gospels of which Matthew 19:29 is just one example.

3.  Our good deeds are not only accepted only in Christ, they are also only through and because of Christ.  God rewards his own activity in us (Hebrews 13:20-21, Philippians 2:12-13).  Commenting on 2 Corinthians 9:8 John Pipers says, “Good deeds do not pay back grace, they borrow more grace.”

The scandal of reward is the scandal of the gospel all over again, the gift that keeps on giving.  God’s grace moves us to be gracious.  But the most liberating freedom to give comes in contemplating what He has given us.  What is the nature of the reward?  Notice that Jesus does not go into spelling out exactly what the reward is.  Jesus does not say, “Give and you will have land and great wealth in heaven.”  If this were the case giving would be self-serving and not God-glorifying.  I think the reason the reward is not elaborated is because what moves us to give here is not what is given, but Who is giving.  In contrast to the hypocrite who gives to hear the praise of others, the Christian gives to hear the praise of His Father.  God is the reward.

So then the key to giving unselfconsciously is to believe God’s promises and be enthralled with the reward.

The engaged young man working two jobs to buy a wedding ring doesn’t think himself to be doing anything, why?  Because he is getting the bride.  He doesn’t draw attention to it, doesn’t manipulate her with it, he is in awe that she graciously said yes, and wants to put a rock on her finger that says, “mine!”  She is honored by his service and brags to others of it, but he doesn’t.  The reward is incredibly disproportionate to the service rendered.

But he is a man.  And there are times when he wonders if all this hard labor is worth it all.  How can he gain gusto to work with joy again?  By looking at her picture, conversing with her, dreaming of her, or seeing her.

If you want to give liberally and unselfconsciously think on your God, know His majesty, and remind yourself of the gospel and His promises.  Go to the Bible and be in awe that in Christ you can say, “He is mine!”  Do this and you will think all your meager giving ridiculous.

Jesus in these six antithesis is not negating the law, but explicating it. He isn’t countering the law, but the Pharisees’ wooden interpretation of it. The Pharisees read the law like corrupt lawyers, not lovers. They looked for loopholes in the law under the guise of seeking righteousness and justice. They used the law pursue sin disguised as righteousness. They put white dresses on black sins.

As depraved sinners we don’t want to pursue holiness, which is where the law thrusts us, we want to know where the line is. So we ask, “When does sex become sex?”, or “It it gossip if…?” But what you really ask by such questions is, “How close can I get to darkness? How far can I venture from the light while superficially suppressing my conscious so that I feel good about myself?” We want to flee the light while giving the appearance of avoiding darkness. When we ask such questions we are seeking answers that will make us feel better about our rebellion. We use the law to pursue sin, not righteousness.

Sons and daughters of the kingdom then read the law and keep the heart of it, not so that God will be our Father, but because He is our Father (Matthew 5:48). We read the law with delight (Psalm 1:2), seeking reasons, not exceptions. We read it this way not to gain salvation, but because reading it this way is His salvation in our heart. We read it this way not to get into the kingdom, but because the kingdom has gotten into us. Because of His love, we read the law as lovers, not lawyers.