In the Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, verses 5 to 16, Jesus provides us with His instructions on prayer. In those verses, Jesus says 3 times, “When you pray”. Thus, prayer is not an option. It is a requirement, a commandment. Jesus tells us what to do and what not to do when we pray. He starts and ends with what we are not to do, and between those, He tell us what to do. And after that, He tells us that our Father knows what we need.

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WHEN YOU PRAY, To Whom Are You Praying?
INTRODUCTION
In the Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, verses 5 to 16, Jesus provides us with
His instructions on prayer.
In those verses, Jesus says 3 times, “When you pray”. Thus, prayer is not an
option. It is a requirement, a commandment.
Jesus tells us what to do and what not to do when we pray. He starts and
ends with what we are not to do, and between those, He tell us what to do.
And after that, He tells us that our Father knows what we need.
 First, Jesus tells us not to be like hypocrites doing what they do.
They love to be seen by others. And Jesus says that’s all they
will get, being seen by others on earth.
 Second, Jesus tells us to go into a private place and pray to our
Father. Though Our Father is unseen, He will see you. Note the parallel to being seen
by people and being seen by the unseen Father.
 Third, Jesus tells us not to be like pagans babbling like pagans do. Pagans think they are
being heard but they are not.
 Fourth, Jesus tells us that our Father knows what we need before we ask Him. That is not to
say we do not need to pray. It does say, the Father will answer our prayers according to
His will. We may sometimes pray our wants rather than our needs.
After we are given the Do’s and Dont’s, Jesus tells “the manner”, “the how to” of prayer.
When looking at its content in detail, it has an interesting flow which can be said as follows
(caps, bolds, and underlines for emphasis):
Then this, is HOW you should PRAY:
‘Our Father in Heaven,
Your Name be hallowed,
Your Kingdom come,
Your Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us our daily bread today.
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation, but
Deliver us from the evil one.’
Jesus closes that manner of instruction with a reinforcement on forgiveness:
If you forgive other people when they sin against you,
Then your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
With that as a backdrop, I want to share some things I learned throughout my life regarding prayer.
Portrait in
Salem Walmer's Union
Church

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AS A CHILD, I was taught to pray in several ways.
 One way is, I was told by a nun in the Catholic school I went to that if I wanted something special,
I could pray a certain prayer she gave me 100 times each night, then God would give me that special
thing. I had a special thing that I wanted, so I set out, every night, praying that prayer 100 times.
How long would it take to pray that prayer 100 times? A long time, so I did it speedily.
 A second way is, I was taught to pray to Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer, as taught then, goes
like this:
Hail Mary, full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women, and
blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
That prayer is said many times while using the Rosary, the bulk of which is 5 sets of 1 Our Father and
10 Hail Marys. There are some other prayers in the beginning and end of the Rosary also.
The one prayer on the Rosary I could not memorize correctly or understand was “Hail, Holy Queen”.
When doing the Rosary in a church setting with others, it was said rather fluently and I was just lost
to what it said. Thus, I did not say it with the others, because I did not know it.
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, hail, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry,
poor banished children of Eve: to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this
vale of tears. Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this
our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus, O merciful, O loving, O sweet Virgin
Mary! Amen.
 A third way is, I was taught to pray to “saints”, such as St. Joseph, St. Jude, and St. Francis.
There are many specific examples that can be found on the internet.
 A fourth way, a best and right way, is “The Lord’s Prayer”.
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil. Amen
Back then, Catholics were not allowed to say the Protestant ending to the prayer which was
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen.
I vividly remember that in public school when the entire class said The Lord’s Prayer, as our
homeroom class did in 1961/62 at Edison Junior High School in Harrisburg, PA, I stopped before the
Protestant ending, and the others finished their prayer. It was always a little embarrassing.

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AS AN ADULT, I learned some things about prayer that I was not taught as a child, and I have since
studied them and prayed accordingly.
 A most important thing I learned was what Jesus said about prayer when He walked with His
disciples. His words are in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, verses 5 to 15:
And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to
you, they have their reward.
But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your
Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will
be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the
things you have need of before you ask Him.
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
 There are many other things stated about prayer in the Bible, and there are many examples throughout
the Bible of God’s people praying. I won’t go into those at this time, other than to say, search them
out and see if they fit into the principles I tell you here which are according to what Jesus said.
When You Pray and The Manner You Pray
In the verses shown above which are in the Book of Matthew, Jesus says 3 times to us
“when you pray”. Then He gives us Dos and Don’ts of when we pray. They are these:
DO NOT ...be like the hypocrites, standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the
streets, that they may be seen by men
DO NOT ...use vain repetitions as the heathen do.
DO ............go into your room.
DO ............shut your door.
DO ............pray to your Father who is in the secret place.
After Jesus gives us the Dos and Don’ts of when we pray, He then gives us “the manner”,
“the how to”, of prayer. He starts off with, “OUR FATHER in Heaven”. He prays to His
Father in Heaven, but not just His Father, but OUR Father. Then He lists requests which I
can tell about another time. Right now, I want to get to the point of this teaching.

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I’ve told you what I learned as a child and what I learned as an adult about prayer. Was I taught
truth in all the ways cited as a child and an adult? No, and I want to tell you why.
Jesus told us to pray to the Father, Our Father, and that’s what He did when He prayed on
numerous occasions stated in the Bible. He prayed to the Father, Our Father. Did He seek out anyone
else? No. He sought His Father who is our Father. He spoke to Our Father. He listened to Our Father.
Did Jesus repeat the same prayer over and over and over as a requirement to get what He wanted?
No, but Jesus did pray 3 times in the Garden the night before His crucifixion. His repetition was not like
praying the same words 100 times, and believing that Our Father would give Him what He prayed. No.
He sweat blood in those 3 prayers, far from vain and memorized, repetitive prayers.
Did Jesus seek out His mother in His prayer requests? No. Because she was the mother of Jesus in
the flesh, not the mother of God. God - Father, Son, and Spirit - has no mother. Jesus was born into the
earth through His mother who birthed His flesh. She did not birth Him as being part of the triune God.
Here’s an interesting point about “The Hail Mary”. The first part of the Hail Mary is similar to
when Mary went to Elizabeth during her pregnancy with Jesus and how Elizabeth greeted Mary.
Mary Visits Elizabeth – Luke 1:39-45
Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and
entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard
the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy
Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said,
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this
granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the
voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is
she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from
the Lord.”
Elizabeth GREETED Mary with words of blessing. The Catholic Church has taken those words of
greeting and used them in a prayer to Mary. Is there anywhere in the Bible where there is a
godly prayer to anyone other than God? No, there is not.
Another very important point about the prayer to Mary concerns the second part of the prayer:
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Holy Mary? What is the meaning of Holy as it is used in the prayer? Is it above and beyond other
Christians? In Peter’s letter to scattered believers, he refers to an Old Testament verse saying,
"Be holy, because I am holy." (1 Peter 1:16) All Christians are called to be holy as God is holy, thus
are capable of being holy. That’s a concept we must explore on how that is done.
Leviticus 11:44 'For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be
holy, for I am holy.
Mother of God? Mary was the mother of Jesus in the flesh, not the mother of God. God - Father,
Son, and Spirit - has no mother. Jesus is God who walked in flesh on the earth, but He walked as a
man. Jesus was born into the earth through His mother who birthed His flesh, not Him as being part
of the triune God.
Pray for us sinners? According to the Bible, our intercessor in Heaven is Jesus, no one else.
There is no mention of Mary or anyone else besides Jesus praying for us in Heaven. All the focus of
scripture is on Jesus.
Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him,
seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.

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So, WHEN YOU PRAY, To Whom Are You Praying? Often times, church leaders and teachers,
regardless of denomination, can take what God has spoken, add to it, and turn it into something that God
did not say or intend. There are no principles established by man that can take precedence over the Word
of God. But, it has happened through the ages and continues to happen. That’s why every Christian
must diligently seek God through His Word in the Bible.
Every Christian must know the truth taught in scripture so that when a man speaks forth a claimed truth
(which may not be truth, but may be a false teaching), the Christian needs to be led by the Holy Spirit to
determine if what is spoken is truth or untruth. If the Christian is presented with a new concept that he is
unfamiliar with, that Christian must go to the Word of God to determine whether the concept is truth or
untruth. It is very dangerous not to check out what others are telling you, whether they are “ordained” or
not. No one in infallible. No man should add to God’s Word, but it is done all the time and the sheep are
following the wrongs shepherd to their destruction.
John 8:31-32: Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in My
Word, then are you my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free.
Note well that this is conditional. Jesus said “IF you continue in My Word”.
If we do, then certain things are set in motion. If we don’t, then what happens?
Well, that cannot be good. We can be led astray because we would not know
what His Word says about specific topics that are presented to us. That’s how
untruth gets into the person who is listening to one who teaches wrongly, falsely,
incorrectly. WE MUST KNOW THE TRUTH.
Continue in His Word means to live based on His Word, to abide in His Word,
to do what His Word says to do.
2 Timothy 2:15: STUDY to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that need not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Acts 17:11: Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the
word with all eagerness, EXAMINING THE SCRIPTURES DAILY to see if these
things were so.
DO WE WANT YOUR PRAYERS TO BE HEARD BY GOD AND ANSWERED BY GOD? Yes,
of course we do. Then we must pray to Our Father who is in Heaven. And we must know that Jesus
intercedes for us. And we must know that the Holy Spirit is our advocate before the Father.
PRAY TO NO ONE BUT THE FATHER. We must pray to the Father knowing that Jesus paid the
price to give us free access to the Father, His Father, Our Father. We must find out for ourselves
what is said in His Word about prayer. We must not allow some misguided church leader to lead us
astray because we do not know what the Bible says about a topic.
Please consider carefully what has been said here. Our condition in eternity depends on our
relationship to Jesus, our relationship to Truth. Heaven is forever. Hell is forever. Let’s seek Him
and be with Him, forever and ever, in eternity.

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Jesus said, “In this manner, therefore, pray . . . ”. So, here is a prayer that is said “in the manner” that
Jesus gave us and with the instructions that Jesus gave us.
Our Father,
You are in Heaven on Your throne.
Your name is holy.
We want Your Kingdom to prosper on this Earth, even as it is in Heaven.
We want Your Will to be done on this this Earth, even as it is in Heaven.
We commit to pray to You only.
We commit to stop trying to send prayers to anyone but You.
We commit to study Your Word so that we will not be deceived.
We commit to pray as Jesus taught His disciples, and now teaches us.
When we pray to You, we will not be like hypocrites, standing in the public places to be seen.
When we pray to You, we will not use vain repetitions with many words.
When we pray to You, we will go into our private place and will be unseen by others,
We ask You to provide our needs for today.
We ask You to keep the devil and his schemes from us.
We ask Your forgiveness for the sins we have committed.
We forgive those who have committed sins against us.
We thank You that You sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins so we can gain direct access to You.
We thank You that Jesus intercedes for us before You.
We thank You that the Holy Spirit is our advocate before You.
We send this prayer to You because we know that
Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Our prayers are not limited to specific words and outlines. Our prayers from our hearts can reach
Our Father as we pray In The Name of Jesus. Amen.
Written by: James Eugene Barbush
2021 Blue Mountain Parkway
Harrisburg, PA 17112
Cell: 717-514-5549
Email: JamesEBarbush@GMail.com
Websites: The Shepherd’s Voice
http://jamesebarbush.wixsite.com/theshepherdsvoice
Seek FirstThe Kingdom Of God
https://www.facebook.com/Seek-First-The-Kingdom-Of-God-470653676328872/
The Prayer Room
https://www.facebook.com/ThePrayerRoom2016/

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Matthew, Chapter 6, Verses 5 to 16
(Outline form with headings added)
1. WHEN YOU PRAY VERSES 5 TO 8
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.
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.
And WHEN you PRAY,
Do not be like pagans,
Do not keep on babbling like pagans,
For pagans think they will be heard because of their many words.
For your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
2. HOW YOU PRAY (The Lord’s Prayer) VERSES 9 TO 15
Then this, is HOW you should PRAY:
‘Our Father in heaven,
Your Name be hallowed,
Your Kingdom come,
Your Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us our daily bread today.
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation, but
Deliver us from the evil one.’
If you forgive other people when they sin against you,
Then your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
If you do not forgive others their sins,
Then your Father will not forgive your sins.