The LORD’s Prayer, Part 2: Vain Repetitions
2024-09-02
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8)
These people, who endlessly repeat the same words, think that God will bless them. However, God is omniscient and never forgets. He does not need to be repeatedly reminded of the things that we need.
In that case, why ask at all, since He knows all things? Because prayer demonstrates that we are trusting Him with the results of which we ask. Prayer is not ritualistic in nature; it is a conversation with God. Like anything spiritual, it is accompanied with faith.
Ironically, the prayer that Jesus proposes in the subsequent verses is repeated in churches around the world all the time. Many might use it in an animistic sense like the heathen would do. Even speaking the LORD’s prayer has a danger of becoming a faithless and vain repetition. The prayer given will be a pattern to follow, not a rigid formula for a guaranteed successful prayer life.
We pray both to praise the Lord and to express our reliance on Him in everything. It is not to check a superstitious box to think we are right with the Lord.