(Audio)
In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
We still slide back into this pagan mentality. We tend to think that prayer somehow obligates God to respond if we just do it right or if there is just enough of it. We are somehow still trying to prove ourselves, to put in effort, and to earn our salvation. We secretly worry that God doesn't know or care what we need before we ask him and that only by reminding him ad nauseum will our own needs be met.
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name
Full stop. If God is our Father all of our incorrect and broken notions about prayer have to go. If he is not a power alien and indifferent at best and hostile at worst, but rather our loving creator, our approach to prayer must be different. We are free to "confidently approach the throne of grace" (see Hebrews 4:16). The way we come to have this access is through Jesus Christ "in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him" see (Ephesians 3:12).
When we realize that God is our Father, when we let the Spirit cry out "Abba!" in our hearts, our prayers become simple. We begin to move beyond the constant distractions that steal our focus as we realize that prayer is a genuine conversation of love between persons. We don't need to multiple words anymore. Simplicity suffices.
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus teaches us to pray for ourselves because he wants us to love ourselves as he himself loves us. It is his will for us to desire appropriate blessings for ourselves. If we let him will this desire in us we will be free from excess or deficiency.
Paul knows well that his own identity is based on Christ and the Father. It is this grounding that allows him to forego privileges on which others would insist for the sake of love and the Gospel. He need not receive money as long as other people come to share the relationship he himself has with Christ.
For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God,
since I betrothed you to one husband
to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning,
your thoughts may be corrupted
from a sincere and pure commitment to Christ.
His commitment to Christ is sincere and pure. It is simple. He knows God is his Father and that Jesus lives in him. We too can know this ourselves in our own lives.
I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart
in the company and assembly of the just.
Great are the works of the LORD,
exquisite in all their delights.
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