Prayers That Move Heaven 

Pastor Jeffrey Smith 

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:5-14

I think that we all have found ourselves caught in the middle of an awkward conversation at one point or another. I’ve had my fair share of cringe-worthy moments when I wish I hadn’t said what I said. I think that the reason we get caught in embarrassing conversations is because we don’t really know the person we’re speaking to or we‘re trying too hard to impress them. You don’t ever feel awkward when you speak to your closest friend because your relationship is established. 

This same dynamic exists in your prayer life. Many people feel awkward when they try to pray and I think it’s because they don’t really know God or they’re trying too hard to impress Him. When we feel awkward in prayer, we tend to avoid prayer. Jesus taught us in Matthew 5 about how to develop our prayer life so that it becomes something we do regularly.

Before teaching what prayer is, Jesus tells us what prayer is not. It is not about the size of the words you use or how impressive it sounds. People that pray to be seen and heard by others receive their reward only in the attention they get. If you go pray for an hour and so that you can post on social media about it, each one of the likes that you get is your only reward. However, it’s the people who pray with an earnest heart and care only about being heard by God that are honored by Him.

People that just pray the same repetition over and over are missing the point. We aren’t heard because of how many times we repeat something. Prayer is not some sort of Harry Potter style incantation that we use. God knows what we need before we even ask Him. In fact, He knows what we need even when we don’t know what we need.

Real prayer is about coming before God just as you are. So, let’s do away with the awkwardness. Let’s stop trying to impress God with prayers that aren’t genuine. Let’s approach Him honestly like Jesus taught us to do. When you approach God in the name of His Son and with an honest heart, even simple words like “I need you” become prayers that move heaven.