Day 15

“Praying to our Father in Secret”

“When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place.” (Matthew 6:6 NKJV)

THE PRIMARY thought in the area of religion is—keep your eyes on Jesus, not on people. Your motivation should never be the desire to be known as a praying person. Find an inner room in which to pray where no one knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to your heavenly Father in secret. Have no motivation other than to know Him. It is impossible to carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of strictly confidential conversation with Jesus.“When you pray, do not use vain repetitions…” (Matt. 6:7 NKJV). Our Father does not hear us because we pray earnestly—He hears us solely on the basis of His redeeming grace. He is never impressed by our sincere and intense conviction over any matter. Prayer is not simply about getting things from our heavenly Father—that is only the most basic kind of prayer. Prayer is coming into perfect fellowship and oneness with our heavenly Father. If the Son of God has been formed in us through His Spirit and Fire regeneration (see Gal. 4:19), then He will continue to press on beyond our common sense, opinions, preferences and will change our attitude about the things for which we pray.“Everyone who asks receives” (Matt. 7:8 NKJV). Often, we pray religious nonsense without even involving our will, and then we say that God did not answer—but in reality, we have never asked for anything. Jesus said, “You will ask what you desire” (John 15:7 NKJV). Asking means that our will must be involved. Whenever Jesus talked about prayer, He spoke with wonderful childlike simplicity. Then we respond with our critical attitude, saying, “Yes, but even Jesus said that we must ask.” But remember that we have to ask things of our Father that are in keeping with He whom Jesus Christ revealed.