But as for you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:6
In the above verse, given by Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount, He makes a statement that we will all agree with if we are spiritual minded at all. Most everyone who claims any sort of faith will say that prayer done without fanfare and attention is the best kind and what we should all be doing. The problem is not with agreement on this matter, but in what we practice. Most everyone claims prayer is a good idea even if only for the reason of calming our soul and getting focus on life; this is not the purpose according to the Bible! To pray in the Name of Jesus our Savior to our Heavenly Father should be to share our heart in appeals to Him, but to then find God’s will and get “in tune” with the Holy Spirit and teaching of scripture. Yes, we find power, confidence and hope for living in secret prayer, but it really is about honoring our Lord and being in a proper relationship of faith with Him so He can “reward” us. There is no reward for complaining, murmuring, comparisons and discontent with God’s provision in our time of prayer. God rewards those who trust in Him enough to speak privately and listen intently to Him in a secret place without notice by others. The natural way for us as people is to put more confidence in our actions than in this time with the Lord of the Universe. This attitude reveals just how much we trust in ourselves and our abilities more than the God who is giving us our every heartbeat and breath. We fool ourselves into thinking that what we do is more urgent and important than letting God speak to us and work in ways we cannot see or understand; this is exactly why you hear an outcry today that prayer is worthless and we need to “fix” all the problems of the world today that have existed throughout the history of humanity. We have totally shifted away from trusting in God to only trusting in our efforts. There is no peace, joy or truth found in reliance on humans to change the hearts of people as only the Lord can do that. This is why we have seen a huge uptick in anger, division, violence, injustice and mental health issues as people “think” they can do what only God can; it is offensive to the Almighty and futile for producing real results. Certainly, when God speaks to us through scripture and the Holy Spirit, we must obey or we are being unfaithful to Him; but before any action, we must practice daily getting alone with the Lord and praying for His direction; to skip this essential habit is to ensure more problems for all of us! Let’s commit to doing things God’s ways and then trusting Him for the results as the Bible is clear, “The righteous must live by faith.”
Love in Christ,
Pastor Gary Houdek