The Purpose of Prayer
Adapted from John MacArthur
By Dr. Roger G. Ford, Ph.D., P.E.
Part Two

Jews believed that they had a right to pray. The Old Testament Jews believed that they had right to come to God. This was a major part of their life experience. They continually desired to come to God because they believed God wanted them there. They didn’t come to God like pagans do, in fear and trembling. They didn’t come to God panicking. They came because they really believed God wanted them to come.

In fact, the rabbi said this, “The Holy One yearns for the prayers of the righteous.” Psalm 91:15 said, “When he calls to me, I will answer him, says the Lord.” In other words, the Word of God revealed that God wanted to hear their prayers, that God wanted to hear their hearts’ cry. No Jew, no true Jew with a right spirit, ever doubted God’s priority for prayer.

The rabbis believed that prayer was not just communication, but that it was a mighty weapon, that in a way it released God’s power. In Psalm 65:2 we find an interesting verse. It says, “O thou that hearest prayer,” and then it goes on to say “unto thee shall all flesh come.” But the idea there is that the Jews said, “O thou that hearest prayer.” They believed God heard their prayers. Now I’m not sure the people that worship Baal believed that, are you?

I mean, they would have kept screaming to Baal and nothing ever happened with Elijah, and Elijah kept saying to them, “Well, I think he’s asleep. Yell louder. No, I know, he’s on a vacation.” And they got out stuff, and were ripping their clothes, and cutting their bodies, and bleeding all over the place. I don’t think they really thought their god was that interested, and that’s why they had their endless repetition. That’s why they had their constant badgering, because they really irritated their gods into a response. But the Jews didn’t believe that, “O thou that hearest prayer.”

The Midrash is a Jewish commentary on the Old Testament’s subsections, and the Midrash, the Jewish commentary on that verse in Psalm 65 says this, “A human king can harken to two or three people at one time, but he cannot not harken to more. God is not so, for all men may pray to him and he harkens to them all simultaneously. Men’s ears become satisfied with hearing, but God’s ears are never satisfied. He is never wearied by men’s prayers.” That’s their comment on that very verse. God wants you to come, it doesn’t matter how many come. He can filter you all out and he never gets tired. He eagerly waits for you to come.

The Jewish teachers went even a step further. They taught that prayer should be constant, constant, constant. They were trying to teach the people to avoid praying only when you get desperate, like the people who think prayer is a parachute. You’re glad it’s there, you hope you never have to use it. They wanted people to pray all the time. And so the Talmud says this. This is the Jewish teachings.

“Honor the physician before you have need of him.” It’s a good word. It says, “The Holy One says, just as it is my office to cause the rain and the dew to fall, and make the plants to grow and sustain man, so are thou bound to pray before me, and to praise me I accordance with my works. Thou shalt not say, I am in prosperity, wherefore shall I pray? But when misfortune befalls me then will I come and supplicate. No, before misfortune comes anticipate and pray.” So the Jews are saying prayer is not some kind of an emergency appeal. Prayer is an unbroken conversation built around a living, loving fellowship with God.

Further, let me tell you some more about the historic perspective on Jewish prayers. They believed that prayer should incorporate nine certain elements.

Number one, they thought prayer should incorporate love and praise, that when you go to God there ought to be a sense of his worthiness and a loving adoration and praise.

Secondly, they felt that prayer should incorporate gratitude or thanksgiving.

Thirdly, the Jewish people believed that their prayers should incorporate a sense of God’s holiness, a sense of awe, a sense of reverence.

Fourth, the Jews felt that in their prayers there should be a patent desire to obey God, that you didn’t pray unless your heart was really right.

Fifth, and tying into the concept of holiness, Jewish prayers incorporated a sense of confession of sin.

Sixth, a pure heart. The Jews used to say that the prayer of a pure heart overturns the wrath of God as a rake overturns the grain. They believed that you could literally turn wrath into mercy with a pure heart.

Seventh, they believed that prayer was to be unselfish. We have developed a self-centeredness in prayer even today in the church that is unbiblical, where we are really preoccupied with ourselves.

Eighth, Perseverance. They believed that you were just to continue to pray.

Ninth, Humility – to submit yourself to the will of God.

All of those elements were part of the traditional prayer life of a true Jew with a great commitment, and a great intensity, and a great concentration, and a great devotion.

The Lord’s Prayer is not a prayer to be recited. There are several reasons. Number one, this prayer is recorded twice in the Scripture; once in Matthew 6, once in Luke 11, and it differs in both places. It is substantially the same, but the words are different. If the Lord was giving us a prayer to be memorized and recited, he wouldn’t have given us different words the two times he gave it, right? In one he says, “forgive us our debts,” and in the other he says, “forgive us our trespasses,” for an example. In other words, if it was a rote, routine prayer to be recited, at least he would have given it the same way.

Secondly, in Luke 11 they said, “Teach us to pray.” They didn’t say, “Teach us a prayer.” It’s one thing to have a prayer book, and open it, and read a prayer. It’s something else to know how to pray. The Lord was not giving them a prayer, he was teaching them to pray. By the way, wouldn’t it seem a little silly if verse 7 says, “And when you pray, use not vain repetition as the pagan,” and then immediately follow it by giving us a prayer we’re supposed to repeat? That would totally ridiculous. It is vain repetition he is trying to avoid.

Further, it is a model for every prayer you ever pray about whatever you pray about. It is a skeleton on which you are to put meat, and bones, and flesh. And what Jesus is giving here is prayer outline, that’s all. Here are the basic elements of prayer. It’s just like an outline. You have to develop this into its meaningful expression in every different situation.

This prayer could be divided simply into three elements, and then three more elements. The first three deal with God, the second three with man. The first three, God’s glory; the second three, man’s need. The first three, the glory of God, “hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” that’s the glory of God. The second three, man’s need; “give us our daily bread, forgive us our debts, and lead us not into temptation.” You see, the point is this. First, when you pray you set God in his rightful place. Then everything else flows out of it. All prayer is to begin with the character of God: Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. And then what follows? God is in his supreme place, and when God is first, prayer makes sense.

Another way to look at it, the first three show the purpose in prayer. What is the purpose? Number one, to hallow the name of God; number two, to bring in his kingdom; number three, to do his will. That’s the purpose of prayer. “Oh God, I’m coming to you in order that your name might be hallowed, in order that your kingdom might come, in order that your will might be done.” What does it mean by which his name is hallowed, his kingdom is lifted up, and his will is done? First, by giving us our daily bread, that’s provision. Second, by pardoning our sins, that’s pardon. Third, by leading us not into temptation, that’s protection. As God provides, pardons, and protects he consequently is exulted in his glory, in his kingdom, and in his will.

Look just at the last three elements (the bread, provision; the forgiveness, pardon; and the leading not into temptation, protection), and you’ll find the three “time dimensions” of life. “Our daily bread,” present. “Our debts,” sins from the past. “And lead us not,” that’s the future. This little prayer encompasses the past, the present, and the future provision sustenance of God. Bread, that’s physical; forgiveness, that’s mental, it relieves the anguish of guilt; and leading not into temptation is spiritual, that’s the maintenance of spiritual life. Whether you’re talking about past, present, future; whether you’re talking about physical, mental, spiritual; whatever it is you’re talking about, it’s here.

By the way, all of the petitions in this verse are in the imperative mode in the Greek, which means there’s an intensity to them, a tremendous intensity. There’s a fantastic brevity in every phrase, but it’s an intense thing; “thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” There are no qualifying elements. Everything in this prayer seeks to glorify God, seeks to lift up his name, seeks to exalt his holiness.

And I would just tell you right now that’s the purpose of all prayer. If you think prayer is for you, you’ve missed the point. That’s why we get so messed up. We’re praying for ourselves. We don’t take into account the whole community of faith, and we don’t take into account the whole will of God in the parameters of his own kingdom. Samuel Zwemmer writes about this prayer, “Every possible desire of the praying heart is contained in this. It contains a whole world of spiritual requirements. It combines in simple language every divine promise, every human sorrow and want, and every Christian longing for the good of others.”

The prayer focuses on God. In John 14 Jesus said, “Ask anything in my name and I will do it in order that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” The reason you pray and the reason God answers is to put himself on display, to put his glory on display. That’s it. When you pray for someone who’s not saved and they come to Jesus Christ, it isn’t for your sake you did it. It’s to show you the power of salvation. When you have a physical need and you pray and God gives the meeting of that need, it isn’t so you can have what you want, it is so that you will know that God meets needs.

His glory is the issue. So when you pray, get it in mind you’re not informing God, he already knows everything. You’re not forcing God, you’re not badgering God, you’re not irritating him, you’re not conning him. What you’re doing is submitting to his sovereignty.

And that’s the affirmation of the disciples’ prayer. That’s the way we want to look at it. It begins with, “Our Father who art in heaven,” adoring God. It ends with, “For thine is the kingdom, the power, the glory forever,” adoring God again. In the middle, everything in it is about God.

“Our Father who art in heaven,” that’s God’s paternity. “Hallowed be thy name,” that’s God’s priority. “Thy kingdom come,” that’s God’s program. “Thy will be done,” that’s God’s purpose. “Give us this day our daily bread,” that’s God’s provision. And, “forgive us our debts,” that’s God’s pardon. “And lead us not into temptation,” that’s God’s protection. And, “thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever,” that’s God’s preeminence. And all prayer, Jesus is saying, is not to stand in the streets, and the corners of the streets to pray to be heard by men, to get glory for yourself, but all prayer is, by absolute contrast, to bring glory to God.