Again and again . . . and again
Within Buddhism, where spinning a prayer-wheel is equated to saying the prayer on it, some will advocate putting prayers on your computer hard-drive. As of 2008 such disks typically spin at 2700 rpm, which is over a million times in a typical working day. Nobody could match that manually. However, Jesus argued that such repetition will not help a child of God to get heard. Just imagine if your child tried repeating the same petition a million times! Especially when you know them so well that you had already anticipated the request.
(Matt 6:5-8 WEB)6:5 “When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward.
6:6 But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
6:7 In praying, don’t use vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking.
6:8 Therefore don’t be like them, for your Father knows what things you need, before you ask him.”
Pray in the inner room
This passage starts by reiterating the message of Matt 6:1-4. Piety performed for show is done for your own benefit and not for God’s. Its reward comes in the form of fickle human adulation, which can catapult you to celebrity one day and vote you off the next. In some cultures it is normal to stop what you are doing and pray at certain times, it then becomes easy to fall into the trap of organising your day so that you are in a public place when the time comes to pray. A person may easily gain a reputation for piety by attending all the prayer meetings, but without that habit of prayer ever spilling out into their everyday lives. Such folk gain the admiration of their peers, but often miss out on the greater prize of a living relationship with God.
The inner room in the temple was where Judaism’s High Priest met with God. Nobody else was allowed in there. Each of us has a similar private place where we can meet with God. For many it will take the form of a special location, but it need be no more than a private place within your thoughts. When you pray, withdraw there and shut out the world, the God who created you will still hear. Once you open the door and come back into your day-to-day existence, God will reward in public the time you spent alone with him.
God already knows the needs of his creation and what is on your heart, so repetition does not help express your need. Many of the gentile cultures amidst which Jesus’ audience lived felt that by repeating prayers they could change the way their deity would act. Many still feel that way, hence the proliferation in some places of mechanical devices to promote repetition of prayer. However, for Jesus, prayer was not about telling God what to do, but about asking him to honour his word, obtaining wisdom about how that word applied to specific situations, seeking divine judgements, and being honest with him about our own attitudes and aspirations.
...commentary continues with Matt 6:9-15