Words of The Day

When We Pray

(Matthew 6:5-6) And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. ⁶But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 

Prayer is one of the greatest acts of the Christian believer. Talking to the Lord, whether by thoughts or in tongue is the way a believer fellowship with the Lord; and the one thing the Lord requires is fellowship with man. (Isaiah 43:10) ¹⁰Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 

So it is essential that we pray and pray often, sharing all day long. However, that we do pray is not the concern of Jesus Christ in this point. His concern is how we pray. It is possible to pray amiss, with the wrong motive and in the wrong way, never be heard by the Lord. It is possible to pray and to be speaking only to ourselves, to have our prayer go no higher than our own ears. Therefore Jesus Christ sets out to teach us the right and wrong motives for praying. 

(Verse 5)  Wrong motive: praying to be seen by men. There are some negative dangers surrounding prayer, some negative factors that must be guarded against.

v     Prayer can become hypocritical- A person can pray for the wrong reasons, with the wrong motives.

v     Prayer can become habit-forming-Prayer is a wonderful experience, very rewarding emotionally and mentally and in having our needs met as God answer prayer. We can begin to love praying and still be praying amiss.

v     Prayer can become connected with certain places –A believer has places that mean much to him in his prayer life, but we must guard against limiting God’s presence only to those places, even if it is the church.

  Jesus Christ says that a man who prays to be seen by men loves to pray, but he is a hypocrite. Some loves representing the group and vocalizing their praise and needs to God. Some become very charismatic and fluent at public prayer, yet they lack that essential love for private praying.  Some pray only in public; they pray before their families (at meals and family prayers, usually with children, in church

(when called upon); and in public (when eating in restaurant). They seldom, if ever pray in private. How destitute is the prayer life of so many!

Prayer is to be offered to God both in church and in public. But public prayer is to be public, not private. Too often we have personal devotions when called upon to pray publicly. We have neglected our private prayers and our inner need has not been met. Thus when we begins to pray publicly, we slip into praying our own private prayer instead of representing the group. The sin is not failing to pray. It is praying only in church and in public. We fool ourselves when we pray publicly and seldom pray privately.

The man who prays in public receives his reward; He will experience good feelings and satisfying thoughts about his spiritual state and religious piety. He will possess a good self-image and some confidence in his standing with God. Man’s esteem can do absolutely nothing about spiritual needs of his heart. All men the same need to turn to the Lord in prayer, praying for His acceptance and recognition. Therefore the, the esteem of man by men is meaningless in light of judgment and eternity.

(1 Peter1:24)For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: (Psalm 49:12) Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. (Psalm 49:17) For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.( Hosea 4:7) As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.

God Bless you as we continue on this spiritual journey.