Introduction
Over the last several weeks, we’ve been exploring Christ’s pattern for the practice of prayer. As members of His Kingdom, we are expected to pray. It should be a normal, vibrant part of our lives.
In the instructions thus far, Jesus has given us instruction on how NOT to pray using hypocrites and heathen.
The hypocrites loved to be seen as they prayed, seeking the applause of men. Their focus was always on their attention they would receive from other men. They were those who honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him.
The heathen, on the other hand, relied on vain repetitions, believing their many words would manipulate divine favor. The vanity in their prayers is that they were not praying to the living and true God. They were praying to false gods. Even those who say they pray to the true God, if they do not come to the Father in Christ, their prayers are empty and go unheard.
This is stressing the point that we can only pray to the Father, as we are instructed, by coming in the shed blood of Christ, and the power of the Spirit.
These are the ways we are not to pray.
Now, in His instruction to us, He now gives us a pattern for prayer—a model to guide us into communion with God.
