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.
Jesus. Matthew 6:5. Hi, it’s Nathan, and this is Day 4 of 30 Days on the Mount of Blessing, PT 2.
Listen, Jesus didn’t have anything against public prayer. He prayed in public himself. But he knew we humans have a persistent disposition to leverage every resource possible to increase our popularity in the world. We are hungry for notice. Hungry for attention. So we do crazy things. We spend hours primping. Millions on manicured lawns. Polish our sweet ride. Work long, hard hours. Post crazy videos. Maybe even pray carefully scripted prayers. All for a single purpose: the glorious—albeit fleeting— sensation of admiration. In that fleeting moment of admiration our studied effort to gain attention, recognition, has gained all it will ever gain for us—as the roar of applause falls silent, so does all that we can hope to gain from our charade. It is purely an act, a stunt—and applause is all we can ever hope to get from these attention-seeking activities.
