secret. This reward is not material or
anything we can quantify. Instead, our
reward is communion with God himself.
God is the reward he gives to his people.
Do Not Pray to Impress
After admonishing his disciples not
to pray to impress people, Jesus then
warns them not to pray to impress
God: “And when you pray, do not heap
up empty phrases as the Gentiles do,
for they think that they will be heard for
their many words. Do not be like them,
for your Father knows what you need
before you ask him” (vv. 7–8). God is
not looking for long words, long prayers,
and mindless repetition. And he is not
impressed by the length or complexity of
our prayers. Once, when I was a teenager,
I was asked to pray, and I began to
repeat words whose meanings I did not
know. I had once heard someone use
the word supplication in prayer, and on
this occasion I worked it into my prayer.
“Lord,” I said, “hear our supplications.”
After sitting down, I thought, What in
the world is a supplication? I was then
chastened by a thought that remains
with me to this day: What kind of prayer
is it that uses words you do not even
understand?
This type of mindless repetition and
heaping up of “empty phrases” is
powerfully portrayed in 1 Kings 18 at
the battle of the gods on Mount Carmel.
The priests of Baal were furiously
repetitive in their prayers and labored
to get the attention of their gods, so
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much so that they even lacerated their
bodies to attract their gods’ interest
in their activity. Elijah used this as an
opportunity to give a little theology of
prayer. As the priests continued praying
and cutting themselves to no response
from Baal, Elijah mocked them by
saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either
he is musing, or he is relieving himself,
or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is
asleep and must be awakened” (v. 27).
Then Elijah demonstrated that God is
not impressed by our many words.
Elijah’s prayer was simple:
O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
let it be known this day that you are God
in Israel, and that I am your servant, and
that I have done all these things at your
word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that
this people may know that you, O Lord, are
God, and that you have turned their hearts
back. (vv. 36–37)
As this story shows, the Lord isn’t
looking for impressive words; he is
looking for humble hearts—hearts that
trust him enough to work, even when our
words are few. Matthew 6:8 is crucial to
understanding the Lord’s Prayer: “Your
Father knows what you need before
you ask him.” If we understand that our
Father knows our needs before we ask
him, we won’t feel compelled to try to
impress God with our prayers and elicit
a certain response through some sort of
feigned earnestness. Instead, by faith
we will see a sovereign God who is ready
and able to answer our prayers, and who