- they should not pray for public display with the intent of gaining approval from men (Matt. 6:5)
- they should not use meaningless and repeatitive words in praying. (Matt.6:7)
What follows is an instruction on how his followers should pray (Matt.6:9-15). "This, then, is how you should pray:" Jesus begins this teaching.
What others do is they memorize this prayer and this is what they repetitively recite when they pray. Of course there is benefit to our souls when we memorize this just like the benefits we get when we memorize other portions of Scripture. But even a beneficial thing may become worthless if we just recite these things outside the Lord's intent. When our Lord said, "This, then, is how you should pray", his intention was to give us an epitome of a good prayer so that we might learn how to express what is in our hearts and thus please the Lord who hears us.
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