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"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. 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. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  Matthew 6:5-8

 

 

Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “. . . pray to your Father who is in the secret place. . . .” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.

We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, “This needs to be done, and I have to do that today.” Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from “the secret place”— He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.  ~ Oswald Chambers

 

 

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, Matthew 6:10

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Matthew 6:33

how do we seek first the Kingdom of God?  how do we see His Kingdom come, His will done?

how do we make this real in our lives?

how do we walk with God?

 

1/ practice the presence of God

2/ pursue His priorities

3/ pour out for His people

 

1.  practice the presence of God

be God conscious, throughout the day turn your heart and mind towards God. think about Him as often as possible.

2.  pursue His priorities 

the interesting thing is that often His priorities are different to ours. eg we would choose bitterness and slander over His ways – forgiveness and love

the plans for our lives look like they bring life but they bring death, but the plans God has may look like death but bring life.

HIS ways, HIS will, not our ways and our will.  if we want His Kingdom, we need to be prepared, and surrendered to do HIS will.

Matthew 6:33 But seek first HIS kingdom and HIS righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

3.  pour out for His people

we dont hide away to walk with God but we live our lives in our real world.  we are called to be the light of the world, demonstrating the love and grace and reality of God as the light of a city on a hill can seen from afar.

how do you walk with God in the places you walk the most aka work, home, school???

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