When you pray, do not be wordy like the pagans, because they think that by their many words they will be heard.
In this saying Jesus shows the true nature of prayer, emphasizing that what pleases God is not the number of words, but the depth of the heart. The pagans thought that long speeches and repetitions could force their gods to listen, but Christ, as we will see next, teaches that God the Father already knows our needs and looks not at the phrasing, but at the purity of the heart. This saying is an exhortation to avoid formal and empty prayers that lack faith and sincerity. Prayer should be simple, true, and filled with love, expressing a person’s living relationship with God, not merely a form of words.