SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/28/2020 10:03 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1“The Content of Prayer”
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: Matthew 6:7-8
Message of the verse: 7 “And 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. 8 “Therefore do not be
like them; for your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him.”
I
mentioned at the end of our last SD that we would be looking at a main section
that has two sub-sections to it. The
first sub-section we will be looking at this morning along with the short
introduction of the main section. “False
Content: Meaningless Repetition” is the
first sub-section which comes from Matthew 6:7.
“True Content: Sincere Requests”
is the second sub-section and it comes from Matthew 6:8.
MacArthur
writes the following as he introduces these two verses: “The Content of Prayer.” A second area in which much prayer of Jesus’
day fell short was that of content. The
hypocritical prayers of the scribes and Pharisees not only were given in the
wrong spirit but were given in meaningless words. They had no substance, no significant
content. To be acceptable to God, Jesus
declared, prayers must be genuine expressions of worship and of heartful
requests and petitions.”
False Content: Meaningless
Repetition
7 “And 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.”
Jesus
speaks of meaningless repetition in verse seven as being a wrong way to
pray. We have touched on this in an
earlier SD, but I think that as we think of chanting we will get the idea of
meaningless repetition. You can see an
example of this in the story of Elijah confronting the prophets of Baal in 1
Kings 18. Don’t think that when you pray
for something over and over again that is perhaps on your prayer list that you
are doing this, for that is not what Jesus is talking about. I have a list of retired Pastors on my prayer
list that began with one man and has not expanded to others too. One of the things that I have been praying
for years is that God will continue to give these men opportunities to
preach. Two of these men are now
preaching at our church as we await God to bring us our next Pastor. One preaches on Sunday mornings and one on
Wednesday evening. God has answered my
prayers that I have prayed for most every day for the last five years.
John
MacArthur writes “Use meaningless repetition’ is one word (from battalogeoe) in the Greek and refers to
idle, thoughtless chatter. It was
probably onomatopoetic, mimicking that sounds of meaningless jabber.”
Not
all of the Jews were using this kind of repetition, but what they were doing
was praying prayers each day in kind of a trance like state, not really
realizing what they were saying as they just repeated certain prayers. “To these people, prayer was simply a matter
of required religious ceremony, and they could be entirely indifferent to its
content. As long as it was officially approved,
one pattern was as good as another” (MacArthur).
In
the case of the Jews this problem did not always involve hypocrisy, but it did
always involve a wrong attitude, having a wrong heart. What these proud hypocrites tried to do was
to use God to glorify themselves, whereas those who used meaningless repetition
were simply indifferent to what real communion was with God.
It
is believed that the Jews picked up this practice from the Gentiles which Jesus
mentioned in verse seven as they believed that the longer the prayer the better
chance it would be answered. We can see
this today with the Buddhists and the Roman Catholics as they light candles in
the belief that their requests will continue to ascend repetitiously to God as
long as the candle is lit. MacArthur
adds on this subject “Rosaries are used to count off repeated prayers of Hail
Mary and Our Father, the rosary itself coming to Catholicism from Buddhism by
way of the Spanish Muslims during the Middle ages. Certain charismatic groups in our day repeat
the same words or phrases over and over until the speaking degenerates to
unintelligible confusion (John A. Broadus, Matthew [Valley Forge, Pa.” Judson
1886], p. 130).
MacArthur
concludes this section: “It is not
honest, properly motivated repetition of needs or praise before God that is
wrong, but the mindless, indifferent recital of spiritual-sounding incantations
or magical formulas over and over. Not
only must our hearts be right before God will hear our prayer, but also our
minds. Thoughtless prayer is almost as
offensive to God as heartless prayer. In
most instances they go together.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I desire to continue to learn more about
prayer, and am thankful that the Lord is using this section to teach me more
about prayer, and now I want to make sure that my heart is right when I use my
prayer list. I just don’t want to say
the words on my list but seek God to give glory to Himself as He answers these
prayers.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord to teach me more
about prayer.
10/28/2020 10:36 AM
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