He Sees
But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:6 ESV).
What a privilege it is to have such a promise from our Lord. If we seek Him privately, He promises to meet with us personally and to see us, to focus His attention on us. We were created for fellowship with our Lord and our hearts long for His attention and nearness, but sin distracts and destroys that connection and the ability to abide in Him. Abiding in Him, fellowship with Him is meant to be an all day, every day condition, but we easily lose focus and return to following our own wisdom, our own desires, our sin nature. Meeting with the Lord in secret provides childlike assurance that He is with us and He cares for us. By focusing our eyes on Him and Him on us in the secret, living in that assurance all day long becomes possible.
Our secret time with the Lord may become filled with a list of to-do’s like reading a devotion or studying Scripture which are good things, but our fellowship, our relationship with Him must come first, must be our foundation. Secret prayer shouldn’t just be about asking for comfort, or things, or strength; but a giving away of our lives into the sure and safe keeping of our Faithful Father. When the secret fellowship is secured and maintained, then the reward of strength and wisdom to live an obedient public life of following Him is provided.
I think we often focus so much on acting like a follower of Christ in public, that we forget the importance of being a follower of Christ in private when no one can see.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this great reminder.