This sermon by Jesus was given to His disciples, See Matt 5:1-2
It includes many areas of life, but one of them is the area of prayer. Jesus says a lot about prayer. Over the next week or two, I'd like to look closely at what He said, in hopes that His teaching will help us in our own prayer lives.
In our own talking to God.
So, what did Jesus say about prayer here in Matthew 6? Let's look at the very first thing He said.
"And when you pray" See 6:5
1. Jesus spoke as if He anticipated or expected that His followers would pray.
"When you pray"
2. In saying this, He is saying that it's possible to pray.
3. Jesus used a common word for prayer. Pray, means just that, to pray, to offer prayers, to make prayers, to talk to the Lord.
4. The you here, is anyone who follows Jesus. His followers can pray, they can talk to God.
In summary then. There is an expectation, or anticipation that God's people would pray. We know that it's possible to pray, or to talk to God.
That's pretty simple and plain. We can talk to God, and God expects that we would pray.
If you pause a moment to look at this statement in it's context in the sermon on the mount, especially in chapter 6, you can see that it's part of other things that God's people do, such as being generous and caring, fasting, etc. Prayer is part of the normal christian life, or ought to be.
If we also pause to think about prayer in the larger context of the entire book of Matthew, we see that Jesus Himself prayed. He did what He was teaching the disciples to do. He prayed.
And, if we look in an even broader way at the NT and the OT, the new testament and the old testament, we find many, many, many people who prayed. It's all through the Bible.
So, talking to God is normal if you will, in the sense that God's people prayed.
In fact, if we were to really look closely, we would find that God's people prayed in many different times, and for different reasons, etc, etc. Many prayers, about many things are recorded for us in the Bible.
But, this morning, here in Matt 6:5 we are just looking at this one simple thought. The Lord spoke with the expectation that we would pray. He anticipated that we would pray.
That's very encouraging to me. Because, we know that God hears prayer. He both expects that we would pray, and hears us when we do pray.
Here's a scripture to finish up with today.
Jer 29:12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
Tomorrow, we will look at the next thing Jesus said in Matt 6 about prayer. In fact, it has to do with what not to do when we pray.
My prayer today...........
Lord, thank You for teaching us about prayer. And thank You for the promise You made through Jeremiah that for those who call upon You, that you would listen to them.
I'd like to call upon You today Lord, and throughout the day, and I know that You will listen. Again, thank you.
Pastor Bob Grenier
Calvary Chapel Visalia
