God grants to us Kingdom practices or forms, so that we would seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. It is not something that comes natural to you and I. Remember we are born into this world as those who are not righteous and who do not seek God (Romans 3.10, 11b). In fact, our sinful flesh wages war against such a desire or pursuit of seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. So, God has graciously granted to His children practices and disciplines to help form in us the life of Christ (Galatians 4.19) - a life that seeks first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. They are practices and disciplines that God uses to change us and transform us.
Jesus’ goal in Matthew 6.5-18 is to encourage us to trade in mere religion or churchianity for true and genuine devotion. He wants us to trade in something false for something that is real. The Kingdom of God is what is real and lasting. This world and its masking of religion is false and passing. May we lean into something real and lasting today, the Kingdom of God.
Jesus speaks of two practices, prayer and fasting. He speaks to His disciples and to the variety of people in the crowd this day and says, when you pray (6.5) and whenever you fast (6.16). These were two practices that were prominent in the Jewish culture and are important to the disciples’ relationship with God as well.
Prayer is simply communication with God the Father, who is in Heaven (both speaking and listening) through the mediation of Jesus Christ. Prayer is truly the relationship between the Christian and God, the Father - that is why Paul exhorts us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5.17).
Fasting is simply the abstaining from food or drink. The OT word for fasting simply means, to cover your mouth. The NT word for fasting means, not to eat. It was intended as a practice of deep contrition or remorse over one’s sin and also for deeper spiritual communion with the Lord, as well as a way to deal with the temptation of Satan.
Prayer and fasting are to be practices filled with meaning and truth, but in Jesus’ day there were those who turned them into opportunities for the flesh. The Pharisees and other religious leaders made such practices into a means to get noticed by others. They would pray and fast to simply show off and seek approval from men.
Jesus says, the hypocrites love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men (6.5). Prayer was a practice in the synagogue. The prayers in the synagogues were led by a member who stood at the front (to be invited to do so was a mark of distinction). Prayer was not necessarily practiced at the street corners but the one who strictly observed his afternoon hour of prayer could deliberately time his movements to bring him to the most public place at the appropriate time. Jesus warns that one who prays for show or to get praise from men has already received his reward in full: The praise of man instead of the reward of God.
Jesus says, 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 (6.7).
Jesus is not condemning long prayers or repetition in prayers. He prayed a long prayer Himself in John 17 and the Psalms are full of worshipful prayers and songs of repetition to God. Jesus’ point was that we should avoid meaningless prayers that repeat themselves because in some way we think it makes them more effective or again we want attention or to be noticed by others. Jesus by saying, as the Gentiles do, is saying when you do this you are doing something pagan.
Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting (6.16). The Pharisees would fast twice a week providing for themselves opportunities for religious showmanship to gain a reputation as one who is holy. They would adopt an air that was somber and downcast. They would disfigure themselves by not washing or shaving and then they would sprinkle ashes on their heads to signify deep remorse and brokeness. They would also not freshen themselves up with oil that they would normally use. They simply were drawing attention to themselves and again Jesus says, they have their reward in full.
So, showy, thoughtless and babbling prayers are pointless. Fasting to be noticed is a waste of time. Neither practices, done with such motives and in such a way, encourage a life of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, but the exact opposite.
The true disciple by contrast is to pray in the following context, 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 (6.6). Jesus calls for prayer in a secluded, probably windowless room and possibly the only room in the house with a lockable door, thus making it a secret place, withdrawn from the world. Jesus is not forbidding corporate or public prayer, but He is emphasizing the importance of secret prayer, the communion of the disciple with His Father. It is the place of solitude and silence in prayer. Solitude and silence are the context in which true and meaningful prayer is practiced.
The true disciple longing to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness fasts, as Jesus says, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you (6.17-18). Put your normal oil on and clean up, so that you do not draw attention to yourself Jesus says. Keep your fasting between you and God, so it is not used as an opportunity to be noticed or praised by men. Bonhoeffer says, Fasting helps to discipline the self-indulgent and slothful will which is so reluctant to serve the Lord, and it helps to humiliate and chasten the flesh. May we mortify the flesh and its passions with secret fasting, so we may seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Maybe we abstain from not only the consumption of food, but the consuming or accumulation of needless goods by means of shopping, so instead of choking we breathe.
Jesus gives us a model of our focus and attitude when praying, but I believe it can also be applied to fasting as well. First, Jesus wants us to approach prayer with the right view of God, believing who He is as we see in Matthew 6.8. He wants us to know that God the Father knows exactly what you need before you even pray. He is all-knowing. Nothing gets past Him. So, you come to the Father asking and knowing that God knows your needs before you even ask Him.
Jesus says this is how true disciples are to pray in Matthew 6.9-13. Not that this is exactly what we are to pray, but this is how, a model, and what our attitude should be.
Our Father, who is in heaven. First, we pray to God, the Father. He is personal and never absent. He is caring and full of compassion. We come to Him as a child.
Hallowed be Your name. Holy is His name, meaning He is holy and we praise and adore Him in our prayers as such - glory be to God alone, but it is also the desire that He would be treated as holy. We pray, praising Him for who He is, but also that we would be holy in our thoughts, speech and conduct as He is holy.
Your Kingdom come. The Kingdom of God has broken into earth under Christ’s ministry, but has not been consummated. We pray for God’s kingdom to come asking that God’s sovereign and saving rule would extend now over the earth and especially in our own life AND we also cry out for the consummation of His Kingdom, that Christ would come!
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. That the will of God would be accomplished on earth now as it is in Heaven, with certain events that God will orchestrate, but especially through the obedience of His children.
So, this is how we pray, so that we may live such a way, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Prayer is not man’s attempt to change the will of God. It is God’s method of changing our will, to bring it into conformity with His will. More than changing things, prayer changes people.
We pray and fast with God as the focus and then we turn to our helplessness in Matthew 6.11-13.
Give us this day our daily bread. We need God’s help when it comes to food and how we will earn it. So, we pray give us today our bread for the coming day. This is in no way to diminish our responsibility to work, but that as Jesus’ disciples we live one day at a time trusting Him for all good things, even our ability to work and earn food. We pray believing that it all comes graciously from God’s hands.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. We must pray asking the Father to forgive us of our sins. Jesus assumes here that we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. He expounds more on this in Matthew 6.14-15 saying, For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. Do you believe today that the grace of God is sufficient to forgive you of your sins? Do you believe the death that Christ died on the cross was sufficient enough to forgive you of your sins? If so, then how much more should you forgive others who sin against you? If God can forgive you for adultery, putting other gods before Him, for lying, stealing, using His name in vain and on and on, then why can you not forgive someone else of such things? Do you really believe that His grace is truly sufficient? If you truly do you will forgive others. If not, your salvation is held into question. How could you be forgiven from God above and not forgive your fellow man? You can’t. John Stott puts it best, Once our eyes have been opened to see the enormity of our offence against God, the injuries which others have done to us appear by comparison extremely trifling. If, on the other hand, we have an exaggerated view of the offences of others, it proves that we have minimized our own.
A reason we struggle with forgiving others is we have lost view of the greatness of our own sin and forgotten how much God has forgiven us of. The reason so many Christian marriages end up in divorce is not just because of the offenses of one or both the spouses, but due to a failure to forgive and in not forgiving minimizing our sin as less offensive to God than the sin of another against us. The church is to be a forgiving community.
Forgiveness is also what guarantees the hearing and effectiveness of our prayers. Psalm 66.18 says, If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear. Isaiah 1.15-17 says, So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. If you want God to hear your prayers, then turn to Him, repent of your sin and let the Lord forgive you and cleanse and change you within. Forgive others and care for those that Jesus has called us to care for. Only then will God hear our prayers.
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. Lastly, we ask the Father for deliverance from Satan. We are helpless before the enemy. We must trust the Father to deliver us the enemy’s deceptive snares. Then we close as we begin, giving Him the glory and praise.
Are you merely playing church? Are you dabbling in religion once a week on Sunday? If so, trade in this charade of falsehood and lean into something real and lasting – Jesus Christ!