Thursday, November 5, 2009
Secret Prayer
(Matthew 6:5-8)
Just as our giving is a private matter, so is our praying. In today’s passage, Jesus does not condemn public prayer in worship services. Rather, He condemns that type of prayer that plays to the audience as the primary concern. He condemns the posture of display that is not the posture of the heart. In prayer, as in just about everything else, motive is everything.
Prayers prayed for the sake of public posture do not get answered. Jesus said such prayers already “have their reward.” In other words, the true desire of the supplicant—public acknowledgement—has already been met. The substance of the prayer, therefore, will go unanswered by God.
Jesus instructed His followers to maintain the habit of “secret prayer.” Taking Jesus’ words quite literally, some earnest believers actually pray in a closet or small room. Though there’s nothing wrong with that approach, the intent of Jesus words is simply secrecy. The place of prayer may be a comfortable chair at home, a spot in the woods or near a lake, or an unused room at the office. Location doesn’t matter; privacy and secrecy does.
Prayer, then, should be regarded primarily as a private conversation—not merely a perfunctory part of the religious liturgy. Prayer should be a time of uninterrupted and unobserved fellowship with Christ—a time of spiritual intimacy not open to the prying eyes of others. And what is the result of such secret praying? Jesus said, “Thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (6).
