It may sound strange but seeking praise in prayer is a grace killer. Jesus gives us a clear picture in Matthew’s gospel of what stops us from experiencing the grace of God. When we give our hearts to seeking praise, honour and status we are in a dangerous place.
In Jesus’ day there was four main ways you expressed your faith:
- Prayer
- Giving to the poor
- Fasting
- Oath taking
Jesus warns his followers not to seek personal praise in prayer.
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogue and on street corners to be seen by men. I tell you truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father” (NIV Matt6:5-6a)
Making prayer a show to assert your own personal esteem is offensive to Jesus and God the Father. It makes prayer a way of building your own ego, showing everyone how wonderful you are! Hunting for others’ praise at church is an attempt to steal worship from God.
In truth, it leads you away from God’s grace; it makes prayer a way to gain “brownie points” with the congregation and to show the world how spiritual you are! A fancy wordy prayer for public show makes people think you are special; more spiritual, in fact, the opposite is true. It produces the fruit of pride and arrogance which God finds insulting. It also makes others feel like their prayers are not valued by God, unless they are showier and cleverly worded. “My prayers are not good enough?”
All God wants is for us to talk with him, Just picture a father with his kids, he does not want a fancy speech in front of guests, but he wants an intimate time in private, and to hear “I love you dad”. It’s all about a heart relationship with God!
May I suggest the iceberg as a way to understand prayer? You might avoid public prayer altogether unless your prayer life is like an iceberg in the ocean. The tip of the iceberg should be public prayer, which makes up about 1 to 2% of all your prayers and the 98% of prayers should be made up of private prayers, submerged like the bottom of the iceberg.
Make public prayer the tip of the iceberg!
