Start Here: Talking with God 🙏

Matthew 6:5–13
By Gary Boyd

Have you ever bowed your head to pray and thought, “What am I even doing right now?” 😕 Maybe you've recited the same words out of habit. Maybe you've worried more about how you sound than who you're speaking to. Or maybe you've felt like your prayers are just hitting the ceiling. 😩

If we're honest, most of us struggle with prayer-not because we don't believe in it, but because we're unsure how to do it in a way that feels real. We've turned something deeply personal into something pressured, rehearsed, or neglected. 😬 But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows us that prayer isn't a performance. It's a conversation. 🗣️ A relationship. 💞 A place of sincerity and dependence. And if we want to build a real walk with God, this is where we start: talking to Him the way Jesus taught us. 🏁

Why This Matters 💡

If your prayer life feels dry, distant, or confusing, you’re not alone-and you don’t have to stay stuck. 🛑 Jesus didn’t just tell us to pray; He taught us how. 🙌 In just a few verses, He gives us a pattern that can restore purpose, clarity, and even joy 😃 to our conversations with God. If you’ve ever longed to pray in a way that truly connects with God and changes you, this is your invitation. 🎉

A Different Kind of Prayer 🔄

By Matthew 6, Jesus is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, calling His followers to a righteousness that goes deeper than religious performance. 🎭 He’s already challenged how people give and fast. Now, He turns to prayer-something familiar yet often misunderstood. In a world where religious leaders prayed for attention 📣 and pagans chanted to earn divine response 🔁, Jesus offers something radically different: sincere, personal, God-centered prayer. ❤️

Let’s walk through four features of true prayer that Jesus lays out in Matthew 6:5–13. 👣

1. True Prayer Seeks God, Not an Audience (vv. 5–6) 👀

Jesus warns against praying like hypocrites who love to be seen by others. The word "hypocrite" originally meant "stage actor"-someone performing a role to impress. 🎭 Their prayers may look spiritual, but they're aimed at people, not God.

Jesus invites us into private prayer, the kind that happens behind closed doors, where there is no one to impress and nothing to prove. 🚪 Why? Because God sees in secret. He knows the heart. 💖 Only real prayer, offered sincerely, receives real reward.

Try This: ✅ Set aside 15 minutes this week to pray in secret. Turn off your phone. 📵 Close the door. Don’t perform-just talk. 🗨️ Write down what felt awkward and what felt real. ✍️

2. True Prayer Trusts God, Not Formulas (vv. 7–8) 🧠

Jesus also tells us not to pile up empty phrases like the pagans do. Their assumption? The more you say, the more likely the gods are to listen. 🙄 But our God isn't manipulated by repetition. He’s a Father who already knows what you need before you ask. 🧡

Prayer isn’t about technique. It’s about trust. 🤝 It’s not a script to master-it’s a relationship to grow.

Try This: ✅ Before your next prayer, take one minute of silence. 🤫 Ask God to center your heart. Then pray using your own words, not the usual fillers. Let your trust lead the conversation. 💬

3. True Prayer Aligns Our Hearts with God’s Priorities (vv. 9–10) 💞

Jesus says prayer begins with honoring God's name, welcoming His kingdom, and surrendering to His will. 👑 Before we ask for anything, we orient ourselves around who God is and what He wants. 🎯

Too often, we start with our wish list. 😬 But Jesus teaches us to start with worship. With surrender. With the understanding that God's agenda is always better than ours. 🙌

Try This: ✅ Each morning this week, start your prayer with these three phrases:

1. God, I honor Your name. 🙏
2. I want Your kingdom in my life. 👑
3. I surrender to Your will today. 👐

Then pray only about things that reflect those priorities. 📝

4. True Prayer Depends Daily on God’s Provision and Mercy (vv. 11–13) 🍞

Jesus closes the model prayer with daily dependence: for provision, for forgiveness, and for protection. 🛡️ We’re not meant to live spiritually independent lives. We need grace every single day. 💧

This includes daily bread (God’s provision), daily cleansing (God’s mercy), and daily protection (God’s strength). 💪 True prayer brings these needs to God in trust and praise. 🎶

Try This: ✅ End each day this week by praying three specific things:

1. What you needed from God that day 🙏
2. Who you forgave or need to forgive 🤝
3. One area where you need spiritual protection 🛡️

So What Kind of Prayer Life Are You Living? 🤔

Jesus doesn’t just give us words to say-He shows us what kind of people we must become: people who pray like loved children, not like performers or beggars. 👶🎭 And that kind of prayer? It changes everything. 🔄

Men, you could wake up tomorrow with peace, knowing your Father is already listening. 👂 Moms, your whispered prayers in the chaos could become sacred moments. 💕 Teenagers, your walk through school could be steadier because your heart is anchored in God. 🏫 As a church, we could stop performing and start truly connecting with God. 🏠

This is what happens when we stop trying to impress and start talking to our Father. 🙏

One Final Word: You Can’t Talk to God as Father Until You Come as His Child 💝

Prayer isn’t how we earn our way to God. It’s how we enjoy a relationship that Jesus made possible. ✝️ He took your sin, bore your shame, and rose again so you could be forgiven and welcomed into God’s family. 👑

If you've never received that gift, today is the day. 📅 He’s not asking you to clean up your life. He’s inviting you to trust Him. ❤️ Call out to Him in faith, and He will hear you, forgive you, and make you His. 🙌

That’s the kind of prayer He always answers. ✅

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