Yesterday we looked at the negative imperative in Jesus' teaching on prayer. He tells his followers not to pray like the hypocrites who pray to be seen by others. Today we will focus on how Jesus' followers should pray.
Matthew 6:5–6
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Jesus tells his followers to "go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen." It seems the antidote to hypocritical public prayer is to develop a robust prayer life, in solitude. Jesus is unmistakably clear in his description—go into your room, close the door and pray. The prayer life Jesus calls his followers to develop is one in solitude.
Driving his point further, he reminds his followers that the Father is unseen and that he sees what is done in secret. These two words (unseen and secret) are translations of the same word in the Greek. The implication is that, although nobody else is there, God is there. God sees because he is "in the secret place", as the NKJV translates it.
When disciples pray in secret, they are rewarded by the Father. Jesus seems to have no qualms about holding out the rewards of prayer. He doesn't spell out what those rewards are, but it is in contrast to the rewards of praying hypocritically in public. So, the likely reward is God's presence and affirmation of such prayers in the secret place. But Jesus doesn't specifically say, so we shouldn't press that too far. We do know, however, that he will reward the genuine prayer in solitude.
Next week we will look at what we should say when we pray.
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Reflection
Think of your private prayer life. Is it a priority in your life to find solitude and, there, pray to God? Do you have a regular time for it? A place? We will be talking about this all week, so for today just reflect on your current practice of private prayer.