Matthew 6:1-13:
Happiness is not Love - but many may think so!

Interesting - because true happiness is just a state of being at some place in time.

Our experience is the result of personal views and at times certain happening in your recent life! Happiness is conditional and not always present in our lives.

We experience many different emotions and actual deeds in this earthly existence - yet not all are beneficial or necessary to our well being!

Seek your true calling with or thru the light of God in your life and all other things will tend to fall into place.

If you only read the 6th Chapter of Matthew and it may open your spiritual eyes. Eternity looms ahead of us all and you should be prepared!

AMEN!

*Let's start with Matt 6:1.

Matthew 6
Matthew 6:1
Note on Matthew 6:1
This is saying that the motives behind our actions are more important than the actions. This is the same point of 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. If the motive for our good works is the praise of men, then the little pat on the back that we get from people is all the reward we will get. We will miss out on God’s blessing.

Life For Today Study Bible Notes
Note 25 at Matthew 6:1: Jesus’ teaching on the giving of alms refers directly to money or goods given to the poor. However, the point He was making applies to all of our acts of righteousness. Our acts of love and charity should be done with the pure motive of blessing others. If our hidden motive is to gain self-recognition, God will not reward us (this verse). The pat on the back that we gain from people will be all the reward that we get (Matthew 6:2), thus making the promise of Proverbs 19:17 of no effect.

Matthew 6:2
Note on Matthew 6:2
This is not a hyperbole. The Pharisees actually had trumpets blown to attract people’s attention as they would give alms. They didn’t care at all for the people they were giving to. They were using those people to gain approval from those who watched. What hypocrisy! Jesus is saying that type of good works has no reward from God.

Matthew 6:3
Note on Matthew 6:3
This is simply stating that we should not do our good works for the praise of men. It is not always possible or necessary to keep our good deeds totally anonymous. But we should not seek praise from men. John 5:44 says, “How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that comes from God only?”

Life For Today Study Bible Notes
Note 26 at Matthew 6:3:
“Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand does” is simply a metaphor used by Jesus to stress secrecy (Matthew 6:4). Of course, it is not possible to have one member of the body function independently of another
(1 Corinthians 12:26), and so it is not always possible to conceal our alms. As stated in Matthew 6:1, it is not the fact that we do alms before men that is wrong, but rather that the motive is to be seen by men.

Matthew 6:4
Note on Matthew 6:4
God sees everything we do and doesn’t need to be informed of anything. If we seek His honor only, we will get it. And when the Lord rewards us, it will not be done secretly. It will be open, if front of everyone.

Matthew 6:5
Note on Matthew 6:5
The little bit of admiration these hypocritical actions produce is all the benefit they will get from such prayers. God will not respond positively to such negative motives.
There is an amazing statement by Jesus is this verse: hypocrites love to pray. Many people feel that all prayer is good. That must not be so since hypocrites love to pray. There is right and wrong praying. Wrong praying can actually make the situation worse and contribute to spiritual pride or, as Jesus termed it, hypocrisy.

Matthew 6:6
Note on Matthew 6:6
This is not literally saying we have to pray in a closet. What if a person doesn’t have a closet? There are hundreds of scriptural examples of people praying wherever they were. This is simply saying we should not pray for show. Our prayers should be sincerely addressed to our heavenly Father and not to the people who listen.

Life For Today Study Bible Notes
Note 27 at Matthew 6:6: Jesus was certainly not speaking against public prayer, as can be seen by His example (Luke 23:34; John 11:41-42, 12:26-30, and 17) and the examples of many other great men of God (David - 1 Chronicles 29:10-19; Solomon - 2 Chronicles 6:12-7:1; Jehoshaphat - 2 Chronicles 20:5-13; Ezra - Ezra 9:4-10:1; Daniel - Daniel 6:10; the disciples - Acts 1:24, 4:23-30, 12:12, and 13:3; and Paul and Silas - Acts 16:25). He was simply stressing that our motivation behind prayer should not be to gain recognition from people (compare with note 26 at Matthew 6:3).

Matthew 6:7
Note on Matthew 6:7
This is forbidding the use of insincere words–specifically, repetitious words. The amount of time or words in prayer is not important. It is the sincere heart communication with the Lord that counts. Sometimes the best prayers are the shortest. “HELP!” is a good prayer. Today many standardized religious prayers fall into the category of prayer that Jesus was rebuking here.

Matthew 6:8
Note on Matthew 6:8
Prayer is not an opportunity to inform poor misinformed God of our needs. The Lord knows what we need better than we do.

Matthew 6:9
Note on Matthew 6:9
This was never intended to be a prayer that we recite word for word. It is more appropriately a model prayer rather than the Lord’s prayer. It guides us into the different parts of prayer. As valid as the truths of this prayer are to us today, it is not a N.T. prayer. It is not prayed in the name of Jesus, taking advantage of His role as mediator.

The first thing we are to do is enter into God’s “gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name” (Psalms 100:4).
By referring to God as our Father, we are calling on His love, mercy, and grace. This reminds us that He is our Father, not our judge. As we magnify God, our problems shrink. Therefore, we should always take this approach with the Lord.

Life For Today Study Bible Notes
Note 28 at Matthew 6:9: The word “manner” is translated from the Greek adverb “HOUTO,” and it means “in this way” (Strong’s Concordance). It is different from the Greek noun “ETHOS” that is also translated “manner,” and it means “habit” or “custom” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary).

Some have adopted the reciting of this prayer and made it nothing more than custom or a “vain repetition,” which Jesus was teaching against. This prayer, commonly called the Lord’s Prayer, is more accurately called the model prayer. It was given as a model of what prayer should consist of.

First, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name” admonishes us to recognize our relationship with God and praise Him for it.

** Matt 6:10 - 13
Second, Matthew 6:10 shows us to intercede for the furtherance of God’s kingdom in the hearts of people (Luke 17:21) and their affairs.

Third, Matthew 6:11 tells us to ask for our daily needs (John 16:24).

Fourth, Matthew 6:12 shows us to confess our sins (1 John 1:9) for the purpose of forgiveness and that we should also forgive others (Mark 11:25-26).

Fifth, Matthew 6:13 says to resist the devil (James 4:7) by receiving God’s protection (Psalms 91).
And finally, the prayer should be ended with praise once again (Matthew 6:13), because if we ask, we receive (Matthew 7:7-8).

Note 29 at Matthew 6:9: Although God is referred to as Father twelve times in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 32:6; 2 Samuel 7:14; 1 Chronicles 17:13, 22:10, 28:6; Psalms 68:5, 89:26; Isaiah 9:6, 63:16, 64:8; Jeremiah 31:9; and Malachi 2:10), Jesus’ frequent use of this title brought in a whole new understanding of our relationship with God.

Jesus referred to God as His Father over 150 times, and He spoke of God as being our Father 30 times. This infuriated the religious Jews of Jesus’ day who considered it blasphemy to call God their Father, because they understood that to mean they were equal with God (John 5:17-18).

This title has become so common in the church today that many times, we don’t perceive its real significance. The revelation that we are instructed to call God our Father reveals the kind, gentle, loving nature of our God (1 John 4:8).
Paul amplified on this by using the term “Abba Father” (Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6), which is an affectionate term that young children would use for their fathers, corresponding to our term “daddy.” “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God” (1 John 3:1).



Andrew Wommack's Living Commentary.