When You Pray…

“And when you pray….But when you pray….And when you pray….” (Matthew 6:5, 6, 7).

Three verses in a row, Jesus tells his followers, “When you pray.”

Notice Jesus didn’t say “If” you pray. Prayer for disciples is assumed. If you are a disciple, you are one who prays.

These verses in Matthew introduce the Lord’s Prayer.

When we pray we typically pray by listing a laundry list of stuff we want God to do for us. That’s okay. God wants to know what is on our hearts. He invites us to pray always and to pray for all things.

However, where we get into trouble is that we confuse praying to God about all things with God answering all our prayers.

If God were to answer all our prayers in the way we wanted them to be answered, who is God? What is God? If praying meant that God has to answer our prayers in the way we want them answered, we are god. Our will rules. That’s absurd!

R. C. Sproul says, “The real prayer of faith is the prayer that trusts God no matter whether the answer is yes or no.”

When R. C. Sproul talks about prayer here, “prayer” has two reference points:

• It can mean one who prays, pray-er
• It can mean the words we utter in prayer

Either way, the prayer of faith trusts God wants to hear what is on hearts, and trusts that God’s will is best.

So, pray. Let God know what’s on your heart. Pray for all things. If you’re thinking about it, pray about it.

And, as you pray, trust God. Trust that God knows best and God wants what is best for you.

If you are a disciple, you pray!