Talking to God: God is not Impressed

Matthew 6:5-8 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

I had a friend who was a name dropper. A name dropper is someone who tries to impress others by the fact that they know famous people. So when they are talking, they “drop names” into the conversation. “when I was talking to the bishop yesterday…” “So I was having coffee with President Lungu…” “Well, that’s not what Michael Jordan told me last week.” You get the picture. It’s someone who tries to make themselves look more important by the company they keep. 

Jesus knew this kind of person and he knew the motivation behind their actions. He calls them hypocrites. This term has its origins in the theater; someone who wears a mask. So by Jesus’ time, it was understood as someone who acts in such a way as to make themselves look better. 

Some of the hypocrites used prayer as a way to make themselves look better. They stood in prominent locations so everyone would see them. They wanted everyone to see them and know that they were praying. Their goal was for everyone to think, “What a great, holy, spiritual person that is! He must be really godly.” 

The reality is, they are using God for the benefit of their reputation. Instead of actually being godly, they are using him to appear godly. There is a big difference. They exploit their relationship with God, their ability to speak with God, to get benefits for themselves. It’s like the guy who is related to a politician and gets a nice-paying government job just because that relationship. Maybe the guy is completely incompetent; it doesn’t matter once his politician relative gives him the job. Now he will take that paycheck no matter what, and he will walk around all puffed up and self-important because of the job.

When we use prayer to draw attention to ourselves, we are mocking God. 

Jesus brings up another way people pray. Using lots of words or flowery language. When I was a little boy, some of the older adults in my church would sometimes use old English language in their prayers. They would use words like “Thee” and “Thou” instead of “You.” They would never “ask” they would always “beseech.” But there was another little boy at my church who prayed using those same words. I thought, “Wow! He must be really godly!” But really, he was just imitating what he heard.

I have two observations about this. First, God isn’t impressed by our imitation of someone else’s prayers.  

Second, God is not a pagan god, who is swayed by human words and actions. If you use enough words, you can change the mind of the pagan gods. If you pray louder, they’ll have to hear you. This is the thought behind the behavior of the prophets of Baal when they had the contest with Elijah on Mt. Carmel. They shouted louder, even slashed themselves with swords, but Baal never answered. 

Both of my observations stem from the same truths. God isn’t impressed by our imitation of someone else’s prayers and God isn’t swayed by human words or actions, because of what prayer is and because of who God is.

Prayer is not about us impressing other humans. If it is, and if it works and actually impresses someone, that’s all the reward you’re getting. But the truth is, prayer is at its root all about communicating with God. God doesn’t want to be the third party in our prayers. God wants our prayers to demonstrate a growing intimacy with Him. That’s why Jesus tells us to go into our rooms, close our doors, and pray there. It’s not because praying in public is a bad thing. It’s about our motivation! It’s hard to have the wrong motivation when there is nobody to impress. When it’s just you and God, and you realize that God knows what is done in secret, when you realize that God knows what’s in your heart, when you realize that God already knows what you need, then you also realize you don’t need to try to impress Him… or anyone else. 

I have had people tell me they didn’t know how to pray. What they really were afraid of was that they didn’t know any special words or language to use while they were praying. The reality is, you don’t need special words. You don’t need flowery language. This is because God already knows your heart. It is also because of the second truth I mentioned earlier. God isn’t impressed by the way we pray because of what prayer is, but God also isn’t impressed by our prayers because of who God is.

We will get deeper into this in my next sermon, into God’s role as Father, but in this passage, we learn some things about God. We learn that God is unseen. This is significant because God is not simply one of us. God is omnipresent, which means he is everywhere at once. We do not have to invite God to join us; he is already with us. We cannot hide from God, but on the flipside, we do not have to put on airs or pretend before God, because he already knows us. 

Sometimes we try to do our good deeds in front of others to be seen by them, but from this passage we see that God sees what is done in secret. God rewards our character and our integrity. Integrity has been defined as who we are when nobody is looking. God rewards our private prayers with relationship with himself. 

We also see that God knows our needs before we ask him. Sometimes we enter into prayer as if we are letting God in on a secret, as if God didn’t know what we need. This sometimes translates into us not understanding why God doesn’t answer our prayers in the way we want, when God is really giving us what we need. I’ll put it this way: sometimes my children ask for candy. I love to give my children candy. It makes them happy. But when it is time to eat dinner, I want to give them something healthy, not candy. If I gave them candy all of the time, they would not be healthy. It’s similar with God. Sometimes he gives us what we ask for. Usually he gives us what we need or what is best for us. 

In prayer, however, we begin to know the heart of God. We begin to understand what it means to ask something in Jesus’ name - according to Jesus’ will. As we become conformed to Jesus’ Christ’s likeness, the way we pray will change, and our relationship with God will grow!