“When you pray, enter into your closet (room), and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret shall reward you openly.” Matthew 6:6
Dear Ones:
If ever there was a verse of Scripture which reveals to us how REAL the Lord desires to be to us, and what a most remarkable privilege and blessing it is to pray, it is this verse. The truth of the matter is that the Almighty God, our Creator and Redeemer, desires to meet us individually, in the solitude of aloneness with Him, with the CERTAINTY of the promise of His presence and blessing. In light of this overwhelming desire and will of God to meet us, to commune with us, is the revelation of the enormous weight of importance it is for us to pray. When Jesus was being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, in one of his responses, He said, “…You shall worship the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve.” (Luke 4:8) Christ, by these words, reveals to us the primacy of worship, and at the same time, the essential of the individual’s meeting with God in prayer. The Psalmist would write: “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.” (Ps. 100:4) The believer is called upon to come to God, to bow down before God, and there in that place of “certain good,” to worship his Creator and Redeemer. The invitation is extended to the redeemed sinner to pray to God, with the full assurance that, if one comes with a right disposition of heart and mind, God WILL receive him or her. In addition, the believer needs to see that he is coming to his or her FATHER, one who tenderly, and graciously receives them, who does not upbraid them, is so very pleased that they have come. It is to such as seek Him thus, who truly find Him. For He has promised, “…and Your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” This is a promise where God commits Himself to reveal Himself to the individual, and this in a manner, that the prayerful believer can and will recognize it. Sometimes this may be with respect to the peace that He gives, sometimes His joy. Sometimes it is in the circumstances in and through which He works, in order for the believer to truly SEE His hand at work. The certainty is that out of true communion with God, there is the promise of the blessing of God.
What then is the great motivation to pray? It is to know God. The Lord Jesus declared: “…for this is eternal life, that they might KNOW Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.” (Jn. 17:3) And how do we know this eternal life, Christ Himself? It begins, and continues, in that place of prayer, that place where there is interaction with God, where we worship Him in Spirit and truth. He responds by speaking to to our hearts by His words, giving His impressions, the revelation of Himself in truth, to the heart and mind. He responds, and rewards openly, clearly, wonderfully.
Dear Father, Teach us to pray, and how to pray. Give us to learn well the lesson of consistency in prayer, living in the expectation associated with believing prayer. And Father, ever strengthen us to pray in such a manner that we refuse to settle for less than Yourself, the knowledge of Thee, and the Lord Jesus. We thank Thee, and praise Thee, that You have called us to communion, and fellowship, with Yourself, eternally. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad