Matthew 6:5-15 (NIV)
5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'
14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
For the next several days we will examine the role of prayer for the true child of God. I have been trying to walk with God for the past thirty five years. I say 'trying' because often times I find that even now I cannot do what I want to do as far as it comes to following Christ.
The first emphasis our Lord makes about prayer is that it is first and foremost an issue of the heart in secret. If your prayer life with God is not first built on much secret prayer your corporate prayer will have little effect.
Public prayer is still important but it is secondary to our private prayer closets. This is something that sets Christianity apart from all the other religions. All the other religions are first and foremost an outward display not an inward reality. But this is not the case with our relationship with God. Our first call is to the prayer closet where we commune with God in secret.
Why the secret place first and not in the open? It is only in the secret place where there are no other distractions that you can discover who God really is. In the secret place the noise of the world is stilled and the distractions are removed. Psalm 46:10 says it best, "Be still and know that I am God."
You may notice this in husbands and wives when they are out in public. You can tell the ones who enjoy each others company in private, they are the most joyful in public. If there is little time spent together in private there will be little joy demonstrated in public. Much private prayer makes for much public rejoicing.
Your Father in Heaven longs to reveal to you just who he really is and he can only get your undivided attention in secret away from all others. This secret time needs much cultivation. It first needs to be a habit and then after it becomes a habit it will grow to become a joy. Once your secret time with God becomes a joy then it will overflow into your public time and imagine what would happen if all of God's people had much private time with him and then at the end of the week they all came together to celebrate God publicly. I think our worship services would never be the same again.
Let us give ourselves to much private time alone with the Father so he would be rightly celebrated when we come together each Sunday.
Heading for the closet,