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December 28, 2024
- By Ed Powell
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"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." Matthew 6:6
Have you ever been lost in the wonder of prayer? Have you ever meditated on the grace of God that has made it possible for us to "come boldly unto the throne of grace that we obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16)? Do you realize that when we truly pray we are in the very presence of God? We are on holy ground. I never cease to be thankful for this incredible blessing God has given us. To come into the "secret of His presence" and bear our hearts before the Lord of Glory is inconceivable to our natural understanding. How precious it is to those who have been supernaturally born of God and have this blessed privilege given to us by our Father.
Let me ask you. How do you approach the throne of God in prayer? Do you feel compelled to pray because you have been taught that this is what we should do as a Christian? Is praying simply a sentimental exercise, a tradition or a function of being a believer? Prayer is not an exercise we piously perform, an emotional experience or some mystical communion with God.
True prayer is when in reverential awe we come before Almighty God with a humble spirit and communicate with our Father as His child. We recognize that it is only through His infinite grace that we can come into His holy presence. We have been made clean through the blood of Christ that enables us to approach His throne. The Holy Spirit has reconciled us to God. When we pray, we are alone with God! In the spirit of worship, adoration, praise, and thanksgiving we come before the Father in child-like faith.
"When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to the Father, who is unseen." Two things are important here. First, close your heart to the world and all its carnal thoughts, desires, and frustrations. Secondly, fix your heart and mind on Him. Let Him encompass your entire being so you can focus on God alone. Prayer is not so much our asking Him for all the needs we constantly have as it is a time to come into His presence and get to know Him. God said, "Be still and know that I am God."
Have you ever stopped long enough to wonder what it is to KNOW God? To know Him in His majesty, His mighty power, His awesome holiness, His infinite love, His amazing grace, mercy, compassion, and care? These and so many other attributes of God we shamefully never seek to know. As His children, we enter into an infinite realm where we trust Him implicitly, seek His mighty power, and through prayer behold in a measure WHO GOD IS.
"Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." When we truly pray, we not only come to worship Him and be embraced by His love, but we come with an open heart and spirit to receive all He wants to say to us and do through us. In the simplicity of surrender, the Holy Spirit will pour out God's love in our hearts so we may love Him "with a pure heart fervently" (I Peter 1:22). He will strengthen us with might in the inner man (Ephesians 3:16). We find that "You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance" (Psalm 32:7). Prayer in secret is when we reach out in unwavering faith to the fathomless treasures of God with which He seeks to enrich our lives for His glory.
All the carnal longings of our old nature find their undoing as we come before the throne of grace and behold HIM. Oh that the whole of our personality may be filled to overflowing by the Holy Spirit with the adequacy of Christ as we encounter God in true prayer. Seek HIM in the "secret place of His presence."
© 2007 by Ed Powell. Used by permission.
This page was reprinted by permission from: http://litmin.org/dare.php?date=2024-12-28&print=1
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