May 1

Secret Prayer

When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. — Matt 6:6

One of the most important things we ever do in this world is to pray. No business transacted anywhere so deeply touches the interests of out lives. We ought therefore to learn to pray aright, so as to be sure of answer. We ought to be eager to get every smallest fragment of instruction about prayer.

In our word for to-day we have one of our Lord’s plainest and most significant instructions about the manner and the nature of prayer. He is speaking, not of public prayer, as when the minister leads the congregation, but of personal prayer, when the child of God wants to talk to his Father of his own affairs, and lay at His feet his own individual burdens. We should seek to be alone in all such praying. Other presences about us disturb our thoughts and restrict our freedom. So we are to “enter into our closet” and “shut the door.”

This shutting of the door is significant in several ways. It shuts the world out. It secures us against interruption. It ought to shut out worldly thoughts and cares and distractions, as well as worldly presences. Wandering in prayer is usually one of our sorest troubles.

Then it shuts us in, and this also is important and significant. It shuts us in alone with God. No eye but His sees us as we bow in the secrecy. No ear but His hears us as we pour out our heart’s feelings and desires. Thus we are helped to realize that with God alone have we to do, that He alone can help us.