Tuesday, October 27, 2020

PT-2 "The True Audience: God" (Matt. 6:6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/27/2020 10:06 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                           Focus:  PT-2 “The True Audience:  God”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 6:6

 

            Message of the verse:  6 "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”

 

            I believe that Jesus is saying that the majority of our prayer life should be in secret, praying privately to the Father in the name of Jesus our Lord.  We can see this in the life of Our Lord as He would go off by Himself and pray to His Father.  When He chose all of His disciples we see that He was up all night praying before doing this task. 12 It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles” (Luke 6:12-13).  John MacArthur writes “Our family members or friends may know that we are praying, but what we say is not meant for them to hear.  Chrysostom, commented that in his day (the fourth century A. D.) many Christians prayed so loud in their rooms that everyone down the hall heard what they said.  If people sometimes happen to overhear our private prayers, it should not be by our intention.”

 

            When we read “and your Father who sees in secret” does not mean He is not present when we pray in public, or with our families or other small groups of believers. Our Father is very much present whenever and wherever His children call on Him, as He would not have it any other way.  What Jesus’ point here has to do with the singleness of intention.  True prayer is always intimate.  Even when we pray in public, if the heart is right and concentrated on God, will in a real and profound way shut one up alone in the very presence of God.

 

            MacArthur writes “In the pattern of prayer Jesus taught His disciples, He begins with ‘Our Father’ (Matt. 6:9), indicating that other believers may be present and that the prayer is corporate.  But even when prayer represents the feelings and needs of others who are present, the supreme attention is to be on God.  In that sense, even the most public prayer is ‘in secret.’  Even if the whole world hears what we say, there is an intimacy and focus on God in that communion that is unaffected.”

 

            When we see the phrase that God “sees in secret” it n the sense that He never betrays a confidence is what is meant here.  I would have to say that many of my prayers to my heavenly Father are as they say “for His ears only.”  He is my heavenly Father who loves me more than anyone can, and therefore I trust Him to understand what I am praying about, especially the very personal things that I tell Him.  It certainly is my desire to have a clean heart whenever I pray to God in order to make sure that can have real fellowship with Him in my prayers.

 

            MacArthur picks up on this by writing “Furthermore, when our prayer is as it should be, ‘our Father who sees in secret will repay’ us.  The most important ‘secret’ He ‘sees’ is not the words we say in the privacy of our room, but the thoughts we have in the privacy of our heart.  Those are the secrets about which He is supremely concerned, and about which only He can know with certainty (cf. 1 Cor. 4:3-5).  Those secrets sometimes are hidden even from ourselves, because it is so easy to be deceived about our own motives.

 

            “When God is genuinely the audience of our prayer, we will have the reward only He can give.  Jesus gives no idea in this passage as to what God’s reward, or repayment, will be.  The important truth is that God will faithfully and unfailingly bless those who come to Him in sincerity.  Without question, the Lord ‘will repay.’  Those who pray insincerely and hypocritically will receive the world’s reward, and those who pray sincerely and humbly will receive God’s.”

 

            Lord willing, we will begin the last main section, “The Content of Prayer” and then begin to look at two sub-points under this main point in our next SD.  After that we will be taking a rather long journey through what is commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer” but in truth it is our prayer, the disciple’s prayer.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I can remember some prayers that I have prayed that probably never got out of the room that I was praying in, and for that I am sorry.  Having an intimate fellowship with the God who made everything is a wonderful privilege that I truly want to be involved in.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will use me to have a wonderful affect on others as they look at the different Spiritual Diaries that are on my blog.  May God use them to bring glory to His Son.

 

10/27/2020 10:42 AM

 

 

           

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