Day 6

Week 1: THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER

A PRIMER ON PRAYER

SCRIPTUREMatthew 6:5-18  5  "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6  But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” OBSERVATIONIn this discourse on prayer (vs 5-18)  Jesus gave four instructions on prayer.

• We must pray in secret before we pray in public.
• We must pray sincerely.
• We must pray in God’s will.
• We must pray having a forgiving spirit towards others.

In the scripture excerpt we read today we see the first of the instructions. UNDERSTANDINGWe must pray in secret before we pray in public.Jesus is not saying that we should never pray in public.  It is not wrong to pray at our times of prayer at church, over our meals, in the presence of other believers.  I think that what Jesus is driving at is that before we pray publicly we must begin privately.  We must start in our “closet.”  Jesus modeled this for us by going off by himself to pray.

• Mark 1:35 (NIV) ³⁵ Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

What would be some of the reasons why Jesus would say that we must start in private before going public with our prayers?If all we do was pray in public then our motivation would have to be called into question.  Are we praying so that people can hear us and be impressed with us?Our private pray gives power to our public prayers, so when we just pray in public our prayers will be lacking in power.Jesus does not want us to be hypocrites by giving the impression of something we are not.Jesus also wants us to pray in private first to remind us that God is our audience not the people in the room listening to our prayers. LIFE APPLICATIONGod I want a prayer life that is filled with power so I will start by finding a solitary place where I can commune with you in prayer so that when I am called upon to pray in public my prayer will carry the power of a man having been with God.  I want the order to be correct, because it is important to you.  Private prayer before public prayer.  And when I pray in public Lord let my heart be to glorify you and bring honor to Your name, nothing more, nothing less.