The Secret of Prayer is Praying in Secret

The Secret of Prayer is Praying in Secret

“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. “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him” [Matthew 6:6-8] 

Everyone loves to pray because prayer is the doorway to receive things from God. And we are barraged almost daily with encouragement to pray coming even from known non-believers or non-practicing Christians because almost everyone knows the Christian language of prayer and prayer requests and the formula, “In Jesus name” at the end. We are not only bombarded with these but today’s believer thinks they need to bombard Heaven with many prayers, yes, even chain prayers so as not to give God rest. He has to hear and answer their prayer no matter what.

I am reminded of the pagan chain prayer made to Baal in 1 Kings 18:26-29 where they “… called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention”. There is stark contrast between this pagan prayer and the one that Jesus gives to His disciples and it is because of the kind of God who is worshipped. The most fruitful and fulfilling prayers I have had were never directed as a program by man and they were always when I was alone with God. But do not take my word for it, we should hear what the Bible says about it. 

God expects us to pray and this is why Jesus said ‘when’ you pray. He did not say ‘if’ you pray as if prayer is not a requirement. He said ‘when’ you pray you must go into your secret place, into your closet and be alone with God [Matthew 6:5,6,7]. Yes, there is corporate prayer [Acts 4:24-31; 12:12-17; 13:3] and it is very important to hold, but we are not always together 24/7. We spend much of the time on our own or with our families and each person needs to have his or her alone time with God without others and this is the kind of prayer which I think is really missing in the church. 

Closet prayer can be done when you are in a crowd and no one will know that you are communing with God. It can be when you are driving, walking or in the comfort of your home. But find your secret place to meet with God in prayer. There are many prayer networks out there and people having chain prayers in order to bombard the throne of God but the secret of prayer is to pray in secret and there is a reward to it [Matthew 6: 4].

When you pray you need to know that God is not impressed by the amount of words you say to Him, neither is He impressed by the big theological words or big English words or poematic expressions. He is not impressed by how high you jump or walk or sit or shout or prostrate yourself. All those are expressions of what you may be feeling inside you but God is not like Baal and He is not worshipped like they did Baal. 

Elijah mocked them and said they needed to shout more because he was god, could have been musing, or relieving himself, on a journey or visiting or asleep. But the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ does not sleep nor slumber [Psalm 121:4]. He is everywhere at the same time [omnipresent], all powerful [omnipotent] and all-knowing [omniscient]. When you pray to God, you need to know what kind of God He is. Often when we repeat words, we repeat them to emphasize a point but when we pray to God, we do not need to heap or repeat words. The Scribes heaped words when praying and for a pretence made long prayers [Luke 20:47] while devouring widows of their welfare. Such kind of prayers are Gentile-like prayers.

So, what should we do when we pray? Jesus says the reason we should not pray like the pagans is because “… your Father knows what you need before you ask Him”. Let me give you a very poor example to explain this but I hope it helps. I have a son called Josh and if he needs anything, he often goes to ask his mom first before he comes to me. Now his mom and I, we are one flesh and we talk about all things. He sometimes takes two or three days before he talks to me about his request but when he finally comes, I would have known about it already and he may stutter or say it all wrong but I will have had first-hand knowledge of what he is trying to ask for from his mom. To me, he need not say much; he just needs to go straight to the point before he receives a yes, no, or wait. 

I said this is a very poor example by the way because unlike me and my wife, God is all-knowing, He knows everything you need before you ask Him. The Holy Spirit is with us and He is ever in the presence of God so much that there is nothing our Father does not know about us or about our needs. We do not need to shout to Him or to make long and unnecessary prayers. He most certainly does not need Heaven to be “bombarded with our many chain prayers asking for one thing” as if He is an unkind and an unwilling God. 

Jesus said, ‘your Father knows what you need before you ask Him’ because He wanted the disciples to know that God is their Father also and that they have a Father-child relationship with Him. He hears the prayers of all His children and this is why the Lord prayed outside the tomb of Lazarus; “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that You sent Me” [John 11:42].  As He heard Jesus, the Father hears the prayers of His children and it is lack of faith that does not trust that God will do it if we rest in Him and His unbreakable promises. 

You are the righteousness of God through Christ and should know that “…The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth…” [James 5:16-17ff, cf. Psalm 34:15, Psalm 145:18-19]. 

If ever you feel or think that God is not giving you what you think you should have, perhaps you need to do some introspection “For [because] the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly” [Psalm 84:11, addition mine] and consider Jesus who “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence” [Hebrews 5:7]. Walk uprightly before God; He always does good when you are in need of any kind. He hears every prayer we make. So rest in Him. Go to sleep and wake up to new mercies each day [Lamentations 3:22-23] and praise Him for it when you arise. God is good.

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About The Author:

Pastor Sam Machacka is co-founder of Brink Ministries Southern Africa. A wonderful colleague and good friend. Equipping Pastors and Church leaders in Southern Africa. He grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe with his beautiful wife Mildred and they are blessed with three lovely children namely Samantha, Munashe and Joshua but they are now serving as missionaries in Malawi since August 2018.

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