The next section of the Sermon on the Mount focuses on the inward nature of prayer. Praying is an art. Yes, it is a conversation with our maker, but effective prayer comes from praying the Word of God in the Spirit. It was contrary to the popular prayer culture of the days where Scribes and Pharisees made a big show of going into prayer with a lot of repetitions but very less emotions put into it. Prayer was a part of their exercise in 'righteousness' made to prove their holiness to the people around them. It was not aimed to build a relationship with God. In fact. Due to the four-hundred-year silence the Jews had more relationship with the Jerusalem temple than with the God to whom it was once dedicated. Jesus however teaches us to pray in the Spirit, not to pray for earthly things and teaches us to rely on God. These comprise the next five sections of the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus begins by criticizing the prayers of the Scribes and the Pharisees who practice their righteousness in front of people but not in the eyes of God. 'Vain-glory' and 'Vain-repetition' is something that Jesus accuses them of. Their external attitude did not match the internal posture of prayer and that is what Jesus had a problem with. To that effect He wished to redefine the act of prayer in itself.
Jesus goes on to provide a model for praying. The model is not based on a certain set of rituals that must be avowed to for divine audience. Rather there are several steps that lead up to the effective means of submitting a petition to God. Let us focus on the model that leads up to it all, which is sometimes erroneously called the Lord's prayer as given in the Gospel of Matthews (Matthews 6: 9-13). The error lies in the fact that Jesus never prayed these exact same words but rather set an example before His disciples for them to later follow.
The Lord's Prayer
The act of praying starts with two simple exercise: recognize who God is and recognizing who you are is respect to God. That provides you with perspective. Perspective allows a person insight into their own motives. We can say that prayer involves a posturing of our mind. It is not the physical act of bowing or kneeling that forms the crux of the prayer but rather the spirit of submission to God's authority.
The prayer can be broadly divided into three parts.
The start of the prayer is made though paying reverence to God. This allows a person to place his needs in perspective to the greatness of God.The second part of the prayer is a requirement of daily needs. The emphasis is needs and not wants. Another characteristic of prayer is bout by the condition of righteousness.The third part of the prayer is acknowledgement that the power to resist temptation and the strength to remain righteous comes from God and we need to seek it. This completes the overall posture of submission to God.
The following is an analysis of Jesus' model prayer as studied through Westminister's Shorter Catechism.
The preface of the Lord's prayer
The preface of the Lord's prayer, which is, Our Father which art in heaven, teaches us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others.
The first petition
In the first petition, which is, Hallowed be thy name, we pray that God would enable us and others to glorify him in all that whereby he makes himself known; and that he would dispose all things to his own glory.
The second petition
In the second petition, which is, Thy kingdom come, we pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed; and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it; and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.
The third petition
In the third petition, which is, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven, we pray that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey and submit to his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.
