Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
Around 15 years ago, when Andrew was very young, we used to spend a lot of time at the library. We went so much that my youngest children practically grew up there crawling on their carpets. When my entire family couldn’t come along, Andrew and I would go alone to work on our studies, as we needed a place to access the internet in order to publish our materials. Back then, the main thing that I enjoyed most about the library was that you could usually find somewhere in the building such as a private room all to yourself, where you could shut the door and find peace and quiet from all the hustle and bustle of the activities of the outside world.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
The Lord Jesus would go out early in the morning to a mountainside all by himself to spend time with the heavenly Father. You might find the same place sitting at the end of a dock on an early summer morning, or driving down a peaceful back road right after a fresh snowfall. Maybe it’s camping on a primitive campground, or walking through the woods after a fresh rain. It can even be the quiet seclusion of your own bedroom closet. Each of us needs to find our own private and peaceful place to meet and spend time with God. Wherever that may be, God will certainly reward those who seek Him in this manner, one on one.
Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Prayer is meant to be a form of personal communication towards God, but many people have turned it into something completely different. Imagine sitting in the lunchroom at school, having a private conversation with your best friend who is sitting directly across the table from you. The things that you are talking about are completely out of the earshot of anyone else. Now imagine yourself standing up on the table in front of 200 classmates and yelling your conversation to him so that everybody else can hear. Doesn’t that sound like complete vanity? Your friend would probably tell you to sit down because you were embarrassing them. So we learn that there is a great difference between doing something publicly or privately.
Public is something that is done or exists in the open view of others. The preaching of God’s Word needs to be done publicly so that people can hear the truth and be saved. On the other hand, something that is done privately is intended for the use of just one person, or a group of people only. For example, things that are shared in a marriage between a man and a wife. Those are privacy issues which are meant between the two of them alone.
“Secret” is defined in the dictionary as something that is not known or seen by others, and hidden from their view. The ministry of God’s Word needs to be done publicly, but when it comes to prayer it needs to be done privately and in secret.
Matthew 6:5-6 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
In these latter days, many people want to be seen by others as a religious person, but it would have been far better for them to become an actor in the theater because the punishment for them is going to be far worse. Their motives are not led out of the desire to obey and love God, but rather by a love to be seen by others.
Matthew 23:5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
People such as these can’t even reap a reward from God because of their own hypocrisy. When He sees you seek Him out privately, He will reward you openly. If you think that everyone who goes into ministry does it because they love God, you are pretty naive. The devil wants to be worshiped, and does so by usurping the teachings of scripture. There are plenty of wolves out there among the sheep today, but for the Spiritual, they aren’t fooling anyone. Just like in days of old, some people have turned prayer into a public display of religion and vanity. They make a mockery of the Christian faith because rather than praying in the privacy of their own home, or in some other discreet meeting location, it is done right out in public view, revealing the hypocrisy of their own lives.
If you went into the principal’s office at school, to ask him if you could take a civics class, would you need to turn on the entire PA system so that the whole school could hear your conversation? This is exactly what people do by praying on street corners, at public tent rallies, community fairs and even at public schools events. I guarantee you that there is more power in the prayer of one person in secret, then there is in 200,000 public hypocrites.
Jesus prayed for His disciples. The disciples prayed for each other. Paul even asked the church to pray for him, but these modern ostentatious displays at these publicized events only reveal that these people are no different than the religious leaders 2000 years ago. Many people don’t want to hear that, but the truth is it gets far worse. If they have women teaching God’s Word they are non-spiritual anyway, and need to be rejected. I’m sure there are plenty of people today who are turned off from Christianity by the acts of these heretical and pretentious outward displays of religion.
There are so many scriptural rewards from God if things are done the right way. God hates vanity, and He doesn’t answer the prayer of the wicked, or the impenitent. This is why people don’t receive what they ask for in prayer. Instead, they receive the reward of popularity and being followed by a group of hypocrites who are just like they are.
Matthew 15:14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
God rewards a diligence seeker; it just depends on the manner in which you are seeking Him.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Remember that God sees absolutely everything, and there is nothing that is hidden from His sight. When you find a remote and secret spot to seek Him, it is those private moments that capture His attention,….the times that you meet with Him….
…. one on One
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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