"And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him." (Matthew 6:7-8)
Commentary: "Romans 8:26 - 'Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.'
Christians have within them God, the Holy Spirit, who helps us to bear the burdens of life in a fallen world. And we need this, because brothers and sisters, we don’t even know how to pray properly. The pagan solves this problem with his prayers of mindless repetition saying the same thing again and again automatically. Those are not the prayers of the Christian believer, they are formulaic incantations that people hope will magically bring blessings, "O Baal, hear us." (1 Kings 18:26) They are not the words of a Son to a Father. Could you imagine a Prince entering into the throne room of his father and mechanically saying exactly the same thing up to five times a day and then walking out? Yet that is the way that Muslims pray. Jesus though said "And when you pray, DO NOT use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him."
We are to pray to God as our Father, and here is the wonderful thing, even when we do not know how to pray the Spirit guides us and makes our prayers, and even our groanings and tears, intelligible . That is one of the many reasons that Christ called the Holy Spirit, the HELPER. He supports us and makes intercession for us. And that directly to our advocate in heaven, Jesus Christ.
Regarding, the great question, "why should we ask if God already knows what we need?", Calvin wonderfully answers that question in his commentary on Matthew 6:8 -
"But if God knows what things we have need of, before we ask him, where lies the advantage of prayer? If he is ready, of his own free will, to assist us, what purpose does it serve to employ our prayers, which interrupt the spontaneous course of his providence? The very design of prayer furnishes an easy answer. Believers do not pray, with the view of informing God about things unknown to him, or of exciting him to do his duty, or of urging him as though he were reluctant. On the contrary, they pray, in order that they may arouse themselves to seek him, that they may exercise their faith in meditating on his promises, that they may relieve themselves from their anxieties by pouring them into his bosom; in a word, that they may declare that from Him alone they hope and expect, both for themselves and for others, all good things. God himself, on the other hand, has purposed freely, and without being asked, to bestow blessings upon us; but he promises that he will grant them to our prayers. We must, therefore, maintain both of these truths, that He freely anticipates our wishes, and yet that we obtain by prayer what we ask." |
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