September 26, 2013

Praying quietly

And Jesus taught us, saying:

Take care about practicing
righteousness
before other people
to be seen by them
rather than being rewarded
by your Heavenly Father Who Is.

When you give to the poor,
don’t be like the hypocrites
who enter the sanctuary, sounding
their own horn in hopes
of getting people praise.

When you hold out your right hand
to give,
don’t let your left hand
even know what you’re doing
that your giving may be
kept secret from yourself,
so only your Father sees and knows.

And when you pray,
don’t be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray
in the sanctuary and outside
on the street where everyone sees.
Truly, I tell you, they’ve received
their reward.

But when you pray, go
privately
into your own room
and shut the door and pray
to your Father Who Is
in secret.
And your Father Who sees
in secret
will reward you.



©2013 Mary Harwell Sayler, prayer-a-phrase of today’s Daily Bible Reading in Matthew 6:1-6.











4 comments:

  1. Instructions given to us are very clear, "go to your rom and close the door" pray in secret I can recall learning this so long ago and its still as new as this very moment to me too.

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  2. Mary, how does this relate to times when people are asking for prayer in a situation? A couple of times on social media I have felt compelled to tweet or post a prayer publicly, always in response to a definite situation.

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  3. The Bible certainly is the Living Word! Blessings.

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  4. In this particular situation, Jesus addressed how to practice righteousness - not publicly for showing how wonderful we are but privately for God to know. The idea was for us to be aware of our motives before we take our prayer, alms, or other gifts outside where others can see. Praying for people in person or on the Internet focuses on their needs and on Christ's power without calling attention to ourselves.

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