Prayer Masks

 Prayer Masks

 

When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

MATTHEW 6.5-6

 

He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the LORD.

2 KINGS 4.33

 

Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.

MARK 1.35

 

When people don’t seem to live what they say they believe, we tend to think of them as hypocrites. The word hypocrite originally came from the ancient Greek theatre and described a person who wore a mask.

Jesus says that we shouldn’t pray like the hypocrites. In other words, we shouldn’t use prayer to put on a spiritual show for people that doesn’t line up with who we really are. Why does Jesus have to warn us not to pray like hypocrites? Because he knows that we enjoy the admiration of other people and we’ll use anything — even prayer — to get it. He knows that we would much rather work on getting a reputation for praying than actually praying. And he sees us when we tell someone we will pray for him or her, knowing even as we say the words that most likely we will not.

Jesus says that when we pray to impress other people, we’ve already received our reward — their admiration — but that is such an empty and fleeting reward! We can make a big deal about public prayers or brag about private prayer and receive the applause of people, or we can go into our secret places, shut the door, and talk with God. There we find our best reward, not in making an impression on others, but in finding intimacy with him.