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Those five areas are in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6. A careful look will isolate these five critical spiritual issues for prayer. Those five issues will determine the quality of relationship to God as a Father, and secondly, they will determine how effectively the Spirit of God will minister to us. In this study, we will look at the first of the five issues that a person needs to address in prayer. But first, let’s look at three truths about prayer that Christ discusses in Matthew 6, beginning in verse 5: . . . and whenever you pray, don’t you be as the hypocrites, because they really like to be standing and praying in the synagogues and on the street corners. One of the beliefs of the Pharisees was that prayer should occur three times a day. This was their approach: they would time it so that they would be walking through the market place at noon. When the sun was directly overhead, the Pharisees would stop and look up to heaven, with eyes wide open and arms up, and would pour forth memorized prayers out loud in the midst of the crowds. That was Pharisaic praying, designed to draw attention to themselves. They prayed by the clock: in the morning, at lunchtime, and in the early evening. Christ said not to be like the hypocrites. Don’t set your clock in such a way that you strategically place yourself in order to be seen by men. Christ went on to say, “. . . they are receiving their wage doing that sort of thing.” The alternative he recommended is in Matthew 6:6: Whenever you pray, enter into a quiet inner room and lock the door. Pray to your Father in secret, and your Father, the one seeing in secret, shall pay you a wage. God the Father is in heaven. No one can see Him from the earth. He’s not terribly concerned that anyone should see Him anyway. He’s not overly impressed with Himself; He’s merely God. He doesn’t have to make a display out of Himself, so why should His children make displays out of themselves? Then it goes on: And don’t be continually praying using nonsense words, even as the Gentiles, for they are thinking that in their many words they shall get a hearing. Matthew 6:7 What is Christ referring to with his reference to the non-Jews and their verbal volume? The Greeks, who had the Dionysian cult, got drunk and drugged and they would babble incoherently for hours on end. In doing so they believed they were turning themselves over to a demon, which in their religion was a minor god, a demigod. The mark of being possessed by the god was babbling incoherently at great length. Since Greeks were in Jerusalem, and the Dionysian cult was throughout the Mediterranean, Christ was aware of their practices. They thought their volume of words would get them in touch with the supernatural. Christ said, “Don’t be like them.” So a Biblical relationship to God is not based on time. Nor is it based on the amount of words. Matthew 6:8 goes on to say: And don’t you ever then become like them, for your Father knows the needs you have before you ask Him. So the third truth about prayer is that it is not need-based. What Christ eliminates from prayer is fascinating. The first thing He eliminates is a mechanical schedule, time. The second thing He eliminates is a lot of verbiage, a lot of words. The third thing He eliminates is a grocery list of needs. He simply says that God already knows what our needs are. That’s not the pivotal issue in prayer. So if it’s not time, if it’s not words, and if it’s not my needs, then what is it? The pivotal issue is actually five issues. The very first issue is simply God as our Father. The first thing Christ taught his disciples was to turn to God the Father and say, “Our Father, the One in the heavens.” That’s revolutionary. The phrase "God the Father" only occurs two or three times in the Old Testament. At the very beginning of Christ’s teaching on prayer, notice the critical issue He selected. Having a picture of ourselves as children of God and a picture of God as Daddy- Father, our Heavenly Father, is very important. The truth of the Fatherhood of God cuts two ways: God is our Father, so we have a relationship of an adult son or daughter to Him. The very first issue in prayer is how God looks at us as His children and how we look at God as a Father. Do we view God as a kind, generous-hearted, emotionally involved, compassionate, absolutely loyal God who wants our best, who delights in our company, and wants us to be in heaven with Him forever? The phrasing of the prayer is designed to create a spiritual crisis, because we’re supposed to be able, through faith, to look at God and say, “You are my Father. You are personal, you’re emotionally involved with me, and you view me as a mature son or daughter in Christ. You do not view me as a slave, you do not view me as a kid, but you view me through the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, I have to respond to you not based on a relationship of rules and fear, but on a relationship of affection and principle.” What’s the difference between a child and an adult? A child responds based on black and white rules. An adult should respond based on principle. God wants us to respond to Him maturely and to view Him as an affectionate, emotionally involved God. Psalm 103:10-14 is a critical passage for our understanding of God and how He wants us to respond to Him. In the next verses, the word “healthy” was added so the contents make more sense in our culture. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor does He pay us back according to our lawless deeds. For like the height of the Heavens above the earth, thus did His loyal affection prevail over those who respect Him. Like the distance from the East to the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Like the tender pity of a healthy father over his offspring, so Yahweh has tender pity for those who respect Him, for He personally knows our form while remembering that we are just dust A mature response to God is respect. Respecters of God don’t add their works to God’s grace, but they take God at His word in faith. That’s how to respect God both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. One doesn’t add to what God has done. We trust His word and rely on Him as a person who needs His help. For He Himself knows our frame, and He is mindful that we are but dust. The first spiritual issue in prayer is to sort out that we have a Father who is emotionally involved with us. He sees us in Christ, and we’re totally accepted, as Christ is accepted by Him. In one seminar a person made this comment, “If prayer is supposed to be issues-oriented, I don’t think I’ll get beyond the first issue for the next year and a half.” If it takes a year and a half to sort out the relationship with God as a Father, that’s fine. He won’t mind. To have a clear view of God, the effort is worthwhile. The first part is understanding God as a Father. The second part is making the reality a rich source of emotional strength within. This is done by picturing it. A most effective way to minister to our own emotions is: first understand the doctrine biblically, out of the text. Then take emotionally significant images and play those images through the mind, using the imagination, to view God as an affectionate Father. So in my own mind, I view God the Father as a Dad who is running to meet His children, and He’s smiling, and He’s grabbing them up into His arms, and He’s dancing with them, He’s enjoying them. When I see a healthy father responding in a gracious and kind way to his children, I take that image and I play around with it and I say, “That’s what God is like.” We need to feel these emotionally rich truths.
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rayer has a major place in the
Christian life. The way we communicate the daily issues and
needs of life to God through prayer. Christ taught His
disciples to pray, and what He taught them has great meaning for us.
His teaching addresses five areas or issues that need to be sorted
out on a daily basis with God the Father in order for the Spirit of
God to have a powerful ministry in our lives. 
