But you, when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.

 

Saturday, September 23, 2023


Psalms 54; 55:1-12

1 Kings 12:18-33

Matthew 6:5-15


But you, when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.


All of us have two faces. Each of us step in two worlds. There is the world of the public: the face we put on for the world. The career that defines us. The humour we laugh at; the music we dance to; the friends we cultivate; the image we would like to project. Then there is the secret world; the world of secrets. It is not such a romantic place as one would think; Hell is not a Raymond Chandler novel. In fact, those things that live in the secret world are still out in plain sight for people to see. But they happen at night, or in specific places. We’ll let them out in front of certain people but not others.


Our Father sees what is done in secret. He sees the things that we do that we only do in front of certain people or in certain places. But listen to this teaching from Jesus: in teaching us how to pray, Jesus assumes that there is the possibility that there can be holiness even in that secret place. Jesus doesn’t even seem to consider the possibility that the secret place could be abused in service of sin.


Jesus’ death on the cross and subsequent resurrection reverses many things. Death is now the pathway to life, and the secret place is now a holy place. In fact, Jesus encourages us to run to the secret place, because the Father is there in a particular and special way that He isn’t in other places. We can see God in a certain way when we meet Him in secret. The secret world is also the realm of the King of kings and Lord of lords, and when we acknowledge Him as ruler of that place too, then we will meet a side of Him we won’t anywhere else.



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