Matthew 6:6 But
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. Yesterday Jesus taught us about secret
giving, and today Jesus will teach us about secret praying. Now there is
nothing wrong about praying in public. When to preacher calls on someone to
pray at church, that is good. The person will pray out loud and we can agree
with him in our hearts. Sometimes when he says what we feel is what we would
say if we were doing the praying, we might even say a little “amen!” to
ourselves. That person is “leading” in prayer, and we are following right along
with him. And that’s good. But back in Jesus’ day, the Pharisees prayed just to
be seen of men. They would stand up in a prominent place and pray loudly so
that everyone would think that they were so, so spiritual. And that’s
what Jesus was teaching against. Those Pharisees were not praying to God; they
were praying to be seen. Their prayers would not go any higher than the
ceiling! So, when we pray, whether in public or private, Who are we praying to?
That’s right. We are praying to God. And God will hear and answer our prayers,
if we are really praying to Him.
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