In Matthew 6:6, Jesus tells us that when we pray to “go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place.” But, as Oswald Chambers points out in this devotional, Jesus is addressing more than just our physical location. He’s also guiding us on our spiritual posture towards prayer:

The primary thought in the area of religion is—keep your eyes on God, not on people. Your motivation should not be the desire to be known as a praying person. Find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer.

When you pray, do not use vain repetitions . . . (Matthew 6:7). God does not hear us because we pray earnestly—He hears us solely on the basis of redemption. God is never impressed by our earnestness. Prayer is not simply getting things from God—that is only the most elementary kind of prayer. Prayer is coming into perfect fellowship and oneness with God. If the Son of God has been formed in us through regeneration (see Galatians 4:19), then He will continue to press on beyond our common sense and will change our attitude about the things for which we pray.

Read the entire devotional at utmost.org.

How have you seen your physical location change your prayer life? How has talking about your prayer life affected your approach to it?

By: Chris. This entry was posted on Thursday, September 16th, 2010 at 10:35 am and is filed under Devotional, Prayer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.