WHEN YOU PRAY

We have been looking at three Kingdom principles for some time now.
Yesterday, we concluded one-third of our outline… we put an end to the ‘When You Give’ part.
Today we will start looking at the ‘When You Pray’ part.

WHEN YOU PRAY

a. Pray in your Room (Matthew 6:5-6)
I trust you would read the Scripture above; so let’s just delve right in.

As has been established over and over again in the course of this series, what Jesus Christ was dealing with in this section of His sermon was about the INTENT OF THE HEART… He was dealing with MOTIVES.

He was saying that you may deceive men with your actions, but not God… that God has eyes that see beyond your actions to your heart, and it is the state of the heart that God does business with.

So if you want to get rewarded (it is God that rewards; man can only give you an award) for your right actions, then you must not only have right actions, you must also have a right motive/intent… Those right actions must proceed from a right heart…

So we also study these two verses from that understanding.

So when Jesus says, “Pray in your room (with the doors shut),” we understand that He was giving a solution to the wrong motives hypocrites have for ‘praying outside their rooms’, which is ‘praying so that they may be seen of men.’

He was not saying that we could only pray in our rooms.
Not at all; for He also prayed outside His room (Mark 1:35)

So the message Jesus Christ is passing across here is this:

We are not to pray so that people can 'feel' our prayers (that we pray and/or that we know 'how to pray'.)
Our intent should not in any way be to impress the people around us.

The idea is that when we pray (be it in our rooms, outside or with a group of people), we should GET ALONE WITH GOD.
Even if you are praying with a thousand and one people, you should so focus on God that you see yourself alone with God, standing before His glorious throne and communing with Him.
Our hearts should be fixed on God, and not with the motive of being seen of men.
Your heart should so focus on God that you even lose grip of what is going on in the environment.
You get alone with God.

To further buttress this point, let’s look at the Greek word ‘tameion’.
It is the word translated ‘closet/room’ in the passage in question.
‘Tameion’ refers to a chamber on the ground-floor or interior of an Oriental house which was generally used for storage or privacy, a spot for retirement.
You see, it depicts a secret chamber, closet, or storehouse.
So Jesus Christ was painting the picture of a prayer whereby a man gets into and he is in such private communion with God that the other man next to him ceases to exist!
He is not praying to impress the next man (and in other words, praying to the man), neither is he looking at how the other lady is praying; for he is in a deep private fellowship with his Father. Nothing else and no one else matters.

So Jesus Christ is not saying we are to pray only in our rooms.
He is only using the concept of a room to paint a picture of how our prayers should be.

Some pertinent questions for us:

• When you kneel down sanctimoniously with your head bowed to the ground, praying in whispers; is it to give people the impression that you are really in deep communion with God? Or is it because that’s simply the way you touch heavens or the way the Holy Spirit led you to do it at that point? Your motives matter!

• When you raise your voice during prayers, is it to show men that you don’t do ‘ssmmeh ssmmeh’ (small small) prayers? Or is that because it helps you focus? Your intents matter!

• When you go to pray at that spot your pastor (or that brother/sister you are believing God to be your husband/wife) usually prays at, is it so you can show him/her that you can pray? Or is it because you know there’s an atmosphere around him/her that you want to tap into? Your heart matters!

• Etc.

Remember that with God, intents/motives/hearts are weighed, not just actions.
Pray right!
Pray!
You have not given yourself to prayer?
You are joking with your life and the lives/destinies attached to you!
Repent!

We'll continue tomorrow by looking at what Jesus meant by vain repetitions, and the concept of praying for forgiveness.
Don't miss it.

Shalom

P.S.: Your comments, contributions or questions on the territories we have covered (GIVING and PRAY IN YOUR ROOM) are welcomed.