Read: Matthew 6:5-8
Have you ever done any acting? There’s something fun about pretending to be someone you’re not. Whether you’ve put on a literal costume and acted on a stage or not, all of us have pretended to be someone else at various times in our lives. Unfortunately, this is especially true when we pray. We try to sound more spiritual than we really are, using words we would never otherwise use or words we’ve heard our spiritual heroes pray. Maybe you feel as though God only wants prayers that are put-together and polished up. Either way, our prayers come out sounding artificial and clunky and have become a performance.
Jesus had some strong words to say about turning prayer into a performance. In Matthew 6, he calls out the religious leaders of his day for praying in public places where everyone could see them. He goes on to call them hypocrites, which is a translation of the Greek word, hypokrites, which means “stage-actor.” In other words, these religious leaders were putting on a show. They were pretending to be someone they were not. Jesus wasn’t mad that they were praying in public (that’s actually something Jesus asks us to do, but more on this later), he was simply calling them out for turning prayer into a performance.
God doesn’t want us to be anyone other than ourselves. When we talk to God, we don’t have to use fancy words, clean ourselves up, or pray for super long periods of time as if that’s what “spiritual” people do. God doesn’t want you to be a hypocrite, he just wants you to be you. In fact, Jesus tells us in verse 6 that our Heavenly Father sees everything anyway. God knows our real thoughts and attitudes even if we don’t speak them. So why not just show up and be yourself?