What are your prayers like? How should you pray? When Jesus was preaching the Sermon on the Mount, he told his listeners some things about praying. The first thing Jesus said was, “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites.” They prayed so that they could impress others. They wanted all the people around them to see how good they were and how great their prayers sounded. They were not really praying to God.

Jesus tells us not to be like that. God does not need to be impressed by you. God does not want your prayers to look good to others, but he simply wants you to speak to him from the heart. Tell God what you are thinking, without trying to impress others.

Jesus then also warns us not to use vain repetitions as the heathens do. This means that God does not want us to think that we must have long prayers with lots of fancy words. Again, God is not interested in lots of fancy words, but he is interested in what is in your heart. He wants to have a loving relationship with you and so wants to hear what you are thinking.

Just like a little child will crawl up onto his dad’s lap and talk to him, so God wants us to come close to him and talk to him. God loves us. He sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die on the cross so that he could be our Father.

What a blessing it is that we can call God our Father. He is not a Father for everyone. He is Father for his children only. And you are his child. You belong to him because Jesus Christ died on the cross for you. Jesus tells us that he is the only way to the Father. So if you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, then God is your Father.

Then when you pray, pray to your Father not with lots of fancy sounding words and long prayers, but from deep within your heart speak to your loving Father.

Reflection with your child:

What is important when you pray?

Source: Sermon by Rev. W. Bosch