When You Pray: Matthew 6:5-15

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

The hypocrites—literally "actors"—loved visible prayer. Street corners at prayer time, synagogue platforms, anywhere with an audience. They got what they wanted: human admiration. But that was all they got.

"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

The closet. The inner room. Privacy, not performance. The Father who sees in secret is the audience that matters.

"And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

Pagan prayers were incantations—endless repetition hoping to wear down the gods. More words, more power. Jesus said the opposite: your Father knows what you need before you ask.

"This, then, is how you should pray:

What followed was not a formula to recite mindlessly but a pattern to shape all prayer.

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Father—intimate, relational. In heaven—transcendent, sovereign. Hallowed be your name—let your name be treated as holy. Prayer begins with God, not with us.

"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

The great petition. God's kingdom advancing, God's will accomplished—here, now, on this dirt and in these streets. Heaven's reality invading earth's chaos.

"Give us today our daily bread.

Now the petitions for us. Bread—basic sustenance. Today—not hoarding, not anxiety about tomorrow. Daily dependence, daily provision.

"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Debts—sins, obligations, failures. Forgiveness received and forgiveness extended, linked together. Jesus would return to this connection.

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Two requests: don't bring us into testing, and rescue us from evil—whether the abstract force or the personal devil. We are weak. We need protection.

The prayer was complete—address, worship, kingdom priorities, daily needs, relational health, spiritual protection. Everything necessary in a handful of sentences.

"For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Jesus circled back to forgiveness. The connection was not negotiation but demonstration. Those who have truly received forgiveness become forgiving people. Unforgiveness reveals that forgiveness has not yet been received.

The prayer that Jesus taught has been prayed billions of times since that hillside. Simple enough for a child, deep enough for a lifetime of discovery. Our Father—and everything flows from those two words.