Watch Your Words!:  “Lord, teach us to pray”. Matthew 6:5-9

1.  How NOT to pray:

1. Do not pray for the purpose of being seen and admired by others

Matthew 6:1  “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 

6:5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

2. Do not say to God what you do not mean from your heart. 

6:7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

II. How TO pray:    

1. Jesus lays down two great rules for prayer:

1. He insists that all true prayer must be offered to God and no one else.  

Whether in public or in private prayer, a man should have no thought in his mind and no desire in his heart but ________.  

2. Jesus insists to His followers that we remember that He whom we pray to is ____  _____.   He is more ready to answer according to His will than we are willing to pray that His will be done. 

     B.  “Pray then like this,  _____  ________…”