(Matthew 6:5-8) "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. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into they 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. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." Jesus was instructing his disciples when it came to the manner of prayer. Jesus told them that when they pray, they should enter into a closet and pray to the Lord in secret and when the Lord seeth what you pray in secret the Lord shall reward thee openly. Why did Jesus mention to his disciples about praying in secret? Jesus knows the heart of man. We as human beings are very proud people. We are proud of ourselves in a number of ways. Along with our pride we have a tendency to display ourselves before the public. In other words we want to "show-off". We love to display our knowledge, humility, our good deeds, and other "positive" attributes before the world. Now the Bible does say that the world should see our good deeds. However, the problem lies in our motives. It's WHY we perform the good deeds before the whole world that counts. The world should see us performing good deeds for the Lord, but we shouldn't allow our hearts to be uplifted with pride when we do perform good deeds. Our motives for performing good deeds shouldn't be so we can be seen of men.
The Pharisees were a very self-righteous religious sect. They were very proud people, they lived to the letter of the law. They followed the law more closely than many Christians in today's society. Consequently, they were ostentatious. Whenever they would pray they would pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets. Their whole purpose for their praying was to be seen of men. It had nothing to do with communicating with the Father. They weren't concerned with God hearing their prayer as much as they desired for the crowds to see them pray. It's difficult to pray and communicate with the Lord when we are doing so in hopes that other people can see us. Honestly speaking, you really can't pray to the Lord if your motive in praying is to be ostentatious with it. When you pray to the Lord, you must concentrate your heart and your thoughts to the Lord. You must have your mind centered on whom you're communicating with. You can't center your heart and mind on the Lord if you're trying to display your prayer before the public. Now that doesn't mean it's wrong to pray a public prayer. In churches and in many community events, you'll hear prayers that's offered to the Lord invoking his blessings upon whatever activities they're participating in. Many times in churches there are a group of people in the congregation offering up prayers together in one accord for particular needs of that congregation. Also, there are times when two or three Christians will gather together and pray together about specific needs. The Bible in Matthew 18:19 says that if two will agree on earth touching anything they shall ask of the Father, he will give it to them. That's something totally different. Public prayers in which we ask for God's blessings upon a particular event is not what Jesus is referring to when he mentions about entering into the closet and offering prayers before the Lord.
The prayer closet is where your serious praying takes places. That's the place where you're engaging in some weighty praying. It's very serious business when you go before the Lord and pray. The word "closet" in Matthew is figurative. You don't have to enter into a literal closet to pray. The word "closet" means "private place" or private room. In other words, when we're engaged in serious praying, we need to find a place where it's just God and us alone and it's he that's only hearing our prayers. When you are before the Lord alone, your tendency for serious, sober praying is much greater than when you're before a group of people. There's not too many people that can focus their mind solely on the Lord praying while with a group of people. When it's just you and the Lord, there's nobody you can show yourself to. There's nobody to impress. The Lord knows that and that's why he instructs us to find a secret closet in which to pray. He knows how we are as human beings. If we are to pray from the heart, we have to do so when nobody's around.
Prayer is a humbling experience. In order for us to be in a state of humility, we need to be alone before God. It places us in a situation where we can be sober and we can spend quiet times with the Lord with our hearts and mind in tune with him. We are then in a position where we can conduct some deep soul searching and bear out our hearts before the Lord. When our focus is solely on communicating with the Lord, then we can pray seriously and expect God to communicate with us and answer our prayers. You can't do this when your mind is on impressing other people. When you go before the Lord, you can't impress him. He knows us. He knows our frame of mind, our thoughts, all the sins we've committed the past day as well as future sins we'll commit. There's no way we can impress the Lord. If we pray before the Lord with the right heart and attitude in secret, he'll reward us openly.
In verse 7 Jesus said for us not to use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. Those kind of prayers won't reach the ceiling. True prayer is heartfelt and it's clothed in humility. When you pray before God in a sober fashion, you're not in the business of trying to impress God, simply because you know you can't. God knows our thoughts and the motives of our thoughts. Also, when you're engaging in serious prayer, you're not so much concerned about the words or phrases you use before the Lord as you are in bearing out your heart to him. Those religious people that use vain repetitions in praying before the Lord are not bearing out their hearts before Him. They're just concerned about using eloquent phrases which will impress others. When you're praying to God, you're not concerned about impressing anybody. You realize you are what you are by the grace of God and without Him you're nothing. You know that you need God and without God you can't make it. We should pray humbly before God and recognize what a privilege it is to pray. Praying to God is serious and most of our serious praying needs to take place in the prayer closet. When we pray with a humble heart in secret before the Lord alone, he'll reward us openly.
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