Dear Explorer,
Read Matthew 6:1-4
What would you say is the major teaching of Jesus in these 4 verses?
Do your acts of righteousness (or alms or charity or good deeds) for God, not for other's approval.
What are “acts of righteousness”?
I believe that it is anything that you do that shows love or care toward another of God's creation. I believe the implication here is that you are busy doing good deeds!
What are some good deeds that you could do in secret?
What does Jesus say will happen if you do this?
Is Jesus saying that we need to earn our way to Heaven by doing good deeds? No! He is saying that we will do good deeds because we have invited Jesus into our core, and He will direct us to care for and love people.
Read Matthew 6:5-8
Do you think Jesus is saying that we shouldn't pray with others or when others are present?
No. There are plenty of other places where we are encouraged to pray together. But the focus in this verse is that your prayers are an intimate conversation between you and God even if you are in a group. You need to be focused on God – not on what people will think. Again, Jesus mentions a reward for those who spend time alone with God in prayer.
He also mentions not saying repetitive things over and over. I've heard people just fill their prayers with repetitive phrases such as “O Lord” or “Great Jehovah” or “Heavenly Father”. The other thing that could fall into this category is using a “set” prayer. We often teach children to pray a particular prayer. That's great for beginners, but prayer is more than just repeating phrases. We need to engage our mind as we carry on a conversation with God. I love to read printed prayers and some churches have a prayer book – so that you can find a prayer that addresses your need and use it. Again, that's great for an outline or starting point, but the purpose of prayer is to engage in conversation with God.
My absolute favorite time to pray is when the house is totally empty, and I can pray out loud to God. But because that is rare, I usually go into my prayer room and shut the door.
There's a great truth mentioned in Matthew 6:8. What is it?
Then why do we need to pray?
We pray to tune ourselves to God. The more we pray (talking and listening to His response), the more we understand what God's desires are. When we come to Him with our needs, it shows that we trust Him to provide for us. And it allows Him to teach us His ways so that He can modify our wants into His desires for us. Isn't it cool that when we come to Him with a request, He already knows what we really need, and He already sees the way the answer of that prayer will turn out? We serve an awesome God!
In His service, dale
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