THE positive teaching concerning prayer in these verses we come now to consider. Again they reach further than at first appears on the surface.

Jesus tells us that we must pray to God in secret, and so we must go into our own room and shut the door, and so be alone with God. The idea is to be alone with God, and have no distractions, and also to concentrate upon God to the exclusion of all else. We need to realise that we are coming into the presence of God in his throne room, and so come with reverence and holy fear.

Now it is good to find a quiet room when we can be alone with God, but this is not always possible, yet we can still follow this instruction as we shall see. We also have to appreciate that even if we are in a room on our own, this does not mean that the world can be shut out. We all know to our cost how the world is continually protruding in upon our prayers and distracting us in one way or another.

The truth of the matter is this that in this instruction Jesus is telling us, that whether we are able to be alone in a quiet room, or whether we are surrounded by people, we can still follow this instruction. What Jesus is telling us is that this going into a room and shutting the door is something we must do in our mind and spirit. We do it by closing our thoughts to the world and even to ourselves and concentrating on God. This process is explained in the opening of the Lord�s Prayer which we will begin to consider next time.

This closing ourselves in with God is not easy and it needs practice. We become more proficient as we practice praying. Each time we pray and seek to be alone with God, we shall find we grow in our ability to be alone in our thoughts with God, though there is never a time when we shall not have to work at this principle.

We will realise that each of us has to find a way in which this being alone with God is best achieved. We are all different and so the way we achieve this will not be the same. For this reason we can�t lay down rules, nor should we be judging others when their way is different to ours. I find myself at best in the morning, and after some time meditating on the Bible, I find I can be alone with God best when I am walking the dog before breakfast. This works for me, but each will find our own way. I do find however that the best time to pray is when we are fresh and awake, and this usually is in the morning.

As we bring our needs before God in this secret way, without parading our praying but making it just between ourselves and God, we shall find we receive reward from God. God will reward us openly. This is usually experienced in two ways. The first is that we find our joy in the Lord increasing, and God�s power more manifest in our lives. The second is that we shall find God answering our prayers with his blessing.

Having considered this secret praying and begun to practice it, we shall realise more fully how difficult the practice of prayer is. We will realise that the only people who can really pray are Christians. The reason is that only through faith in Christ as God and Saviour can we approach God, and be alone in his presence. Jesus expresses this here when he says that, �Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you openly.� We are the only ones who have access into the presence of God because we know him as our Father through Christ. Jesus speaks of prayer here as praying to our Father. Only Christians know God as Father. Others may say prayers but they do not come into the presence of God, nor are they heard of God. Jesus is the only way to God as Father.

The other positive teaching concerning prayer which Jesus gives here follows naturally from all that we have considered so far. When people come to God and repeat a phrase over and over again, they do it because they feel, and are taught so to understand, that by such constant repetition they will gain merit, and so cause God to be propitious towards them and grant their desires. Jesus says this is false thinking and is pagan in origin.

Instead Jesus says we must not be like them, but trust in God. He is our Father through Christ, and he is an almighty and all-knowing Father. Jesus tells us to realise by faith that God knows all about us, and all our needs, and being our Father loves us so deeply that he will always hear us, and grant us his answer according to his perfect will. His will is good and best, and this we must believe.

We must be earnest in our praying, and this is often expressed in the intensity of our praying which is shown in praying the same prayer often, but this is not the same as vain repetition. We are not seeking to move an unwilling or indifferent or a wrathful God to give us things or supply our needs, but we are coming to our heavenly Father who we know and trust to deal with us in love, and who wants to listen to our prayers, and grant us all that which he knows is good for us.