Ask in secret

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

ASK IN SECRET

Matt 6:5-8

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. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

NIV

Oh how some would want to wax on in prayer with many words, large words which serve to prove of both their great vocabulary and their huge spirituality, or should that be huge vocabulary and great spirituality? Nevertheless, Jesus says don’t do it, for it proves only that those who do are just puffed up and being a show off. That is what the Pharisees were all about, a big show of religious expression. When we pray, we should not be about showing how many words we know, or how well we can express ourselves. Some believers we know even think God needs to hear the King James version of prayer. Jesus is going to give us a sample prayer next, which has been labeled as the Lord’s Prayer. This idea about praying in secret carries the same meaning about our giving in secret. The giving of our tithes and offering for the purpose of giving to the needy, even our missionary support is giving to the needy and all should be done in secret as our praying should be also. Now that does not preclude the pastor from praying for the congregation or the service in a public manner. But it should preclude the pastor from praying his entire sermon again at the close of the service. What this means is that we should not have to worry about how we speak to God. We can use whatever simply words we know, or feel to express our need or our praise to him. If we were speaking to our closest friend, what choice of words would we use? Most likely we would not start off with, “Oh John, great and wonderful John, how great is your name, John, I just cannot express how thankful we are for your incredible friendship.” Then we would say, “John, I am coming to your today with some heavy burdens upon my heart”. That would just sound stupid. But that is how some Christians think how they need to speak to God. He tells us to just talk to him, ask, trust, believe, he already knows what is on our heart. “God, I need help!” God, help me!” “Lord, I need patience.” Lord, give me peace in this situation” or something else we need his guidance, direction, or power in. At meals, we might need only say, “Thank you” He knows if we are really thankful or not. We just do not need to pray the same words over and over again, even the Lord’s Prayer has become something other than a pattern of prayer. Some recite it as if we have to say it exactly the same way Jesus said it in order for it to have meaning. It seems simply to just deal with these words of Jesus in the context of what he said them. Don’t be like those who are puffed up over their spirituality, just speak our mind when we come to him in prayer. Speak in the vernacular we use every day. His example is just that, a pattern, not a prayer to recite.  He knows what we need, he knows better than we do what we need. Maybe we should just pray for his will to be done in our lives. But the fact is Jesus did tell us to ask the Father. So whatever our need, just let him know we have a need. The point is not that he already knows, but that we should ask. Our asking acknowledges we know we have a need. Instead of trying to fulfill our need in our abilities, we ask him, showing our faith, our trust, our believing he will meet our need. Therefor it is not about the words, although we shouldn’t use a lot of them, and we should not be doing all that in front of everyone, but it is about the asking, and asking in the privacy of our own mind or when we are all alone, in secret.