Prayer Is All About Our Motives—And Those Can Be Very Wrong

Bible Reading And Prayer

Just a reminder ladies that this is the Lord’s word to us this morning. Matthew 6:5 to 8 and I’m reading from the New International Version.

“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 others. Truly, I tell you, 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.” (Matthew 6:5-8)

This is the Word of the Lord.

All right, keep your Bible open so you can follow along as I speak or you can, as Kirsty said, use the prayer journal or look up on the screen behind me.

Well, ladies, today we’re going to spend our time together looking at Matthew chapter 6, specifically at these verses related to prayer.

Now, in this chapter, the Lord Jesus himself teaches us how to pray. He does this by telling us what we should guard against when it comes to prayer. And we’re going to see that here in verses 5 to 8. And then by giving us a guide for prayer, which we will see in verses 9 to 15. So two talks this morning, right? In this session, a guard for prayer and in our second session after morning tea, a guide for prayer.

But before we begin, why don’t we pray now and ask God to help us. Let’s pray.

Our Father, we thank you so much for your word, your word that still speaks to us today. We pray that you would come and help us by your Spirit now to understand what you are saying to us and that you would give us what we need in order to live it out. And we pray for this in your name. Amen.

Hiding Our True Selves

Now ladies, most of us in this room have some kind of relationship with social media. I’m not active on the socials, as I’m told to call it, but I do stalk Facebook and Instagram from time to time. So, you know those people, right? They’re lurking and they’re watching. That’s me.

But one of the things I know to be true is that you can’t always believe what you see on social media. The impression that people give isn’t always true to the reality. And I’ve got some social media slides here just to make the point for us. So, if we can have the first one up, that’ll be great. So, there’s an example of a typical Instagram picture. Everything’s beautiful. The lady’s perfect, curated image.

This, however, is the reality quite often. Next one. Right. That looks more like it. Right. Cape Town winter. Don’t try using an umbrella. It’s not going to work.
What about the next one? The perfectly curated image. Let’s have a look. Yes, we all know that woman on the socials, right? Always looks so well-groomed. But what about the reality? That’s me.

And then my personal favorite, especially in the winter months. First slide. That’s me in the summer. Took a picture in the bath for you. Joking. That’s not me. This however is the reality. June, July, August. June, July, August, ladies. Spring is coming. Get that sorbet voucher.

Right. So, we get the idea, right? The carefully curated image does not always match the reality behind the camera. I hope you know that, right? Especially our younger women, when you’re on the socials, what you see is not actually what you get.

But ladies, just as social media allows us to present ourselves as one thing while hiding the true self beneath, Jesus warns us that we can do the same thing when we pray.

Here in Matthew 6:5-8, Jesus warns us to guard against using prayer to give a false impression to others and a false impression to God. And that’s why Jesus begins his teaching on prayer here by telling us how not to pray. According to Jesus, it’s possible to pray in the wrong way. But praying in the wrong way is not about bad prayer techniques or rather not having the right prayer techniques. It’s an issue of the heart. More specifically, it’s about the motives of our hearts.

It’s similar to the trap of social media, right? Pretending to be someone we’re not. Now, the Proverbs tell us that the heart is deceitful above all else. But ladies, today I want us to examine our hearts honestly before God. And I want us to ask ourselves this question. What motivates our prayers? What motivates our prayers?

Guard Against Being Like The Hypocrites

Jesus puts the spotlight on this question by warning us of two things that we must guard against when it comes to prayer. And I wonder if you picked up on those when Kirsty read for us in verses 5-8. Just cast your eye back down to verses 5-8 for a minute. The first thing that Jesus calls us to guard against, can you see it in verses 5 to 6? Can someone shout it out? That’s right. He calls us to guard against being like the hypocrites.

Now, it’s likely that Jesus is referring here to the Pharisees who were the Jewish religious elite of his day. They loved to pray not because they wanted to enjoy a conversation with God, but because they wanted to show off to other people. And you see that quite clearly at the end of verse five.

Now, maybe you’re thinking that, “Oh, that’s something I would never do. I’d never use prayer to show off.” But ladies, it’s worth remembering that Jesus is talking here to his disciples, to his followers, to people like you and me, if we call ourselves Christians. And Jesus assumes here that praying in order to show off or to impress is something we could possibly dare to do.

We can pray to impress in all sorts of ways actually. There are those who like to stand up, use big words, and show off their Bible knowledge when they pray, all the time hoping people will say, “Wow, I mean, look at that, Haley. Oh, you know, she must be such a strong Christian to pray like that.”

Or maybe you show off in a much quieter sort of way. You go to the prayer meetings or you sit in Bible study with your head bowed. You say amen. Your eyes are closed, but you don’t really pay attention to the prayers being prayed. Your mind is often on other things.

Truth be told, you say amen and you nod in agreement because you want to be seen to be doing the right thing or you don’t want to be seen to be doing the wrong thing. You want people to think well of you. Do you see the issue here? The thing that Jesus is putting his finger on, it’s the motive of our hearts.

So again, what motivates our prayers?

As you scan your eyes over verse 5, pray for one reason only because we have a Father – you’re speaking to him. It is hypocritical to pray forgetting this fact and instead having an eye on what other people think. Hypocrisy is when what you see on the outside doesn’t match what’s going on on the inside.

So on the outside it looks like you’re praying to God, but on the inside what you crave is other people’s praise.

Interestingly, the Greek word for hypocrite means actor. You see, Jesus is saying that if your motive for prayer is to impress others, then no matter how fine the content of your prayers might be, it’s not actually praying. It’s nothing more than acting, putting on a performance for others.

And if your prayers are motivated by what others think of you, then ladies, you might have fooled others, but you haven’t fooled God. He sees into the secret place of your heart where nobody else can see. God sees your motives and nothing is hidden from him. Jesus goes on to say here that if it’s other people’s praise that you crave, well, you will get it, but that’s all you will get. You will get what you want, but you won’t get what you need. There will be no reward, no answered prayer, no presence of God, no peace that surpasses understanding if you pray to impress others.

Because God knows why you’re praying. And the reward here, it’s not like some heavenly token you can cash in like a, “Ooh, well done.” It’s all the rewards and the benefits that come from talking to our heavenly Father with pure motives. Because God knows your motives, you will get people’s praise. They will think so well of you, but you won’t know God in the way he intends us to know him.

Well, if this is something that’s an issue for you, Jesus gives us the antidote. And so, we get to verse 6. And what does Jesus say is the antidote? Someone shouted out from verse 6, so I know you’re paying attention. What must we do? Go into a room alone. That’s right. That way we will have no one to impress except God. You will be praying to an audience of one – just like prayer should always be prayed.

So if you like, verse 6 is the remedy for verse 5. It’s the thing to do if you feel like you’re becoming a hypocrite.

But here’s the thing, ladies. Verse 6 doesn’t mean that you can only pray in private or that you must only pray in private. It doesn’t mean that you can’t pray if you don’t have a little room that you can escape to on your own. Of course, that’s not what Jesus means, right? It’s not saying that corporate prayer is inappropriate, that you must lock yourself away by yourself every time you pray.

Remember Jesus is dealing here with the motives of our hearts, right? And he’s driving home his point that when you pray, your only motive must be talking to God who is your Father, not trying to impress others. So just as our Heavenly Father is unseen, so when you pray, it should not be to be seen by men. It should be to be seen only by God.

Now, of course, we can pray corporately, and we should. That’s commended throughout the New Testament to be praying with and for one another, right? But ladies, even when you’re praying with one another, your prayers will encourage each other, but your prayers are not talking to one another, right? Do you see the difference?

And so the picture here with the room, it’s like, think Harry Potter. Like, you know, in England they’ve got those stairs under the… room under the stairs which just has a door, no windows, no light can get in, like nothing can get in there. There’s just a door

And Jesus is saying wherever you pray whether you’re praying with someone whether you’re praying on your own that must be the image in your mind the only one who can see in here is God himself. I’m talking to God himself.

When we pray, we are to look to God for the benefits of our praying, not to what others will think.

So yes, you can go into a room by yourself if you are really struggling with being a hypocrite, with trying to impress other people, if what others think of you matters more than what God thinks, it’s a good discipline. He’s not saying you can’t do that, but he’s not saying you must do it. He’s making a much bigger point. Wherever you are, however you pray, make sure you’re praying to an audience of one. Learn to enjoy speaking to God by yourself so that when you are around others, you won’t be tempted to show off.

So, let me ask you again, ladies, what motivates your prayers? Or put it this way, what does your prayer life reveal about your heart towards God?

If you are a disciple of Jesus, but you pray to impress others, then you need to listen to Jesus’s warnings today. Stop being a hypocrite. There is no place for acting in the life of a Christian. Do whatever you need to do to root out the sin. Maybe you need to start by saying sorry to God and by spending time alone with him. Train yourself to pray to an audience of one. Let me encourage you this morning to cultivate and to nurture your own relationship with God first, to be in prayer privately first, and then to guard your heart when you pray in your Bible study group or at church or your prayer group or with a friend.

Back in the 1800s, the famous Scottish minister Robert Murray McShane said these words, and I’ve been finding these words so helpful for keeping myself in check when it comes to this idea of praying to an audience of one. He said this, “What someone is alone on their knees before God, that they are and no more.”

Who are you on your knees alone before God? It’s a question worth asking ourselves, isn’t it?

Well, maybe your honest self assessment today has made you realize that, “Hang on, I don’t think I am a disciple of Jesus. I don’t know what prayer is. I don’t know how to pray, and I certainly don’t think my prayers have been very real.”

Well, God’s word tells us that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Ladies, the most important prayer that you can ever pray is the one asking God to forgive your sins through the Lord Jesus Christ. The reality is that only those who know God through a relationship with Jesus can actually approach him in prayer.

So if you’ve not done that yet, if you’ve not come to Jesus, then why not pray to him today? Ask him to forgive your sins and to make you one of his disciples because then you can know the joy of talking to him as your Father and you can know with certainty that he hears your prayers.

Right, guard against being like the hypocrites.

Guard Against Being Like The Pagans

But secondly, Jesus tells us in verses 7 to 8 that we are to guard against being like the pagans. Guard against being like the pagans. In contrast to the hypocritical Pharisees of verse 6, Jesus now warns us to guard against praying like the pagans.

Now, in New Testament times, the pagans or if you have an ESV Bible this morning, you’ll see that the word used is the Gentiles, right? They were the non-Jews, the other religions of the day. And a common idea in those religions was that there is more than one god and that these gods are fickle and kind of, you know, you can’t quite figure them out and that they needed to be impressed or won over by human activities.

Many of these pagan religions involved incantations and repetitive praying. So using words over and over and over again until people were whipped up into some kind of frenzy. All in the hope that they could impress the gods, win their favor, you know, wind them around their little finger, use the gods to get what they want. We see it in so many religions even today.

And sadly, we see it in many so-called Christian meetings. You know, that frenzy, over-the-top emotion of prayers that go on and on and on, chanted like some kind of magic spell. And Jesus says in verse 7, you know, it may look devout, it may look very sincere, but God doesn’t hear it.

And it’s very interesting again, who is Jesus talking to here? He’s talking to his disciples, and he’s warning his disciples, people like you and me, that our prayers could possibly be like this, too. And so he says, “Be on guard. Don’t be like that.” And it’s quite shocking, right? Because we kind of think, “Well, how can our prayers be like that, Lord? What do you mean we could possibly pray like that?”

Well, ladies, it’s easy to recite words without meaning any of it. To pray to impress other people and to pray to try and impress God. It’s easy for us to think that somehow, you know, God needs us to help him understand what it is that we need. And if we just pray things over and over again and just try and get God to, you know, just really hear what it is we want, then he’s going to give it to us.

So the issue here again is one of motive, right? And what’s going on here? It’s don’t you,don’t try and manipulate God with your prayers. We don’t pray like that as Christians. Our prayers could never achieve any of that. We can’t make God jump through our little hoop. We can’t make him do what we want him to do.

So, he’s not saying when things are really hard, well, don’t pray over and over about a certain thing to God. He’s not saying that, right? He’s not saying that we can’t plead before the Father. He’s saying, what is your motive when you dig into your heart? What are you doing when you pray? Are you praying that thing over and over again because you think that somehow if you do that, well, you’re going to get God just where you want him.

I think we do that sometimes, don’t we? We have our little world neatly carved out, life according to Haley, and I’ve got to get God to get on board with this. Okay? So, I don’t actually pray trusting him. I pray trying to manipulate him according to my agenda.

Ladies, our prayers could never do that. We don’t pray in order to manipulate God. We don’t babble like pagans.

Why do we pray? Well, what motivates? What should motivate our prayers? Well, look at verse 8. Surprising answer actually. We should pray because our Father knows what we need. Our father knows what we need before we even ask him. You see, we pray because we are convinced that our Father is all wise and all knowing.

Babbling reveals what you really think about God. Either that he’s cold, hard, and reluctant to help, or that he’s disinterested, and he’s petty, and he needs to be bribed and manipulated. But ladies, we know that the God to whom we are speaking, he’s not like that. Our God is present. He’s loving. He is kind. He cares about us. He’s ready to listen. He knows what we need. And he’s powerful to act.

And so, when we pray, if that’s who God is, we can pray simply and straightforwardly. We don’t need clever words. We don’t need the eloquence of Shakespeare. Sometimes we don’t even have words. Sometimes our hearts are so broken or we are so anxious or so troubled that we don’t even actually know what to say to God. And then Romans tells us the Spirit intercedes on your behalf before the Father with words that we can’t even express. (Romans 8:26)

God is not dumb. He doesn’t need you to inform him of what’s going on in your life or how he should act. He is our loving heavenly father. He knows what we need before we even ask him. And that should motivate us to pray.

You know, I read that and I think, why am I lazy to pray? Why do I hold on to my fear? I’m the queen of this, my family will tell you – worry and anxiety and it eats away. And that’s why Paul says in Philippians, “Do not be anxious about anything, but pray about everything and then the peace of God will fill your heart.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

We can pray and we must want to pray because when you think about who God is, how wonderful to talk to the God of the universe who knows even before we ask him what is good for us, what we need, and who doesn’t hold back.

You know, if your children come to you and they’re starving, “Mom, I’m hungry.” You don’t say to them, “Oh, shame.” Maybe you do, depending on the budget and the time of the month. Bad example, maybe. You know, you give them something to eat.

How much more, how much more will our Heavenly Father not hear our prayers? Talk to him. You can talk to him and you can talk to him straightforwardly and simply. He hears you. He sees you. He loves you. What a delight to talk to our Heavenly Father in prayer.

So much to think about in these few short verses. And it’s good, right? What I love about Jesus is he doesn’t give us a list of right, you want to pray better, here’s a list, things you can tick, a to-do list. He goes for the heart. He goes for the heart. What’s going on there? What motivates your prayers?

Jesus teaches us to guard against prayer that is neither good for us nor pleasing to him.

So just as bad cholesterol, the LDL, chokes up your physical heart, so hypocrisy and empty words, babbling will choke up your spiritual heart. And Jesus tells us to guard against these things because there’s a much better way to pray.

Set your eyes back on God. On the one who sees what is unseen, who knows your heart. Who knows your motives. On the one who doesn’t need you to inform him of your life circumstances, of a God who cannot be manipulated. Set your eyes back on who he is and pray.

Prayer Is Pouring Out Your Heart To God

As we end this first talk, I want to share with you these words from Psalm 62:8. They’re a beautiful description of real prayer. Psalm 62:8. This is what the psalmist says. He says, “Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us.” (Psalm 62:8)

You see, this verse tells us that prayer is about pouring out our hearts to the God in whom we trust. You see, we pray because we do trust God to do what he’s going to do for our good in all circumstances. The heart is the center of our being. So, it’s not just an organ, right, that pumps blood around the body. The heart is the center of our being. It’s the real me.

And so the psalmist like Jesus in Matthew 6, is saying when it comes to prayer, you’ve got to be your real self with your Heavenly Father. You can entrust yourself to him without putting on a show to others or trying to manipulate him. True prayer is simply pouring out ourselves to God, trusting that he hears us and that he sees us and that he knows what is best for us. And so as we end this morning, let me ask you, do your prayers reflect this kind of trusting relationship with your Heavenly Father?

Let’s pray together.

Our Father, we pray that you would help us this morning to take heed of your words here in Matthew chapter 6. As we think about our own lives and all the things that we’re facing and the state of our prayer lives, please will you convict us of our sin? Will you correct, rebuke, and encourage us so that we can repent and get back to praying in a way that honors your name? Please, will you help us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.