THE VALUE OF PRIVATE PRAYER

The Value of Private Prayer

When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.Matthew 6:5-6

Jesus is our pattern and example for prayer, not only in giving us the Lord’s Prayer but also in the way he practised prayer himself during his life on earth. He often left the multitudes and his disciples and went apart to pray alone with his Father in heaven. He didn’t just flash an eloquent prayer heavenward to impress his followers; he spent solitary, extended times talking and listening to God. In this passage, he exhorts us to do the same. Jesus tells us not to pray like the Pharisees, whose goal was to impress others with their prayers, but to get alone with God and to “shut the door” behind us. That means setting aside our work and tasks, separating ourselves from family, from a spouse, and even from our prayer partners at times, in order to have an intimate conversation with our Father in heaven. Then God, who sees and knows all secrets, promises to reward us.

LORD, my heart longs to hear your voice just as Jesus did. Help me to draw away from this frantic and busy world to be alone with you. Open my eyes to see what you want to show me, my ears to hear what you desire to tell me. Then and only then will I know what to pray in secret as I respond to your heart.

FROM THREE TO FOUR EACH MORNING—THAT IS MY HOUR. THEN I AM FREE FROM INTERRUPTION AND FROM THE FEAR OF INTERRUPTION. EACH MORNING I WAKE AT THREE AND LIVE AN HOUR WITH GOD. IT GIVES ME STRENGTH FOR EVERYTHING. WITHOUT IT I WOULD BE UTTERLY HELPLESS. —Toyohiko Kagawa (1888–1951)