Pray First: The Place for Prayer
Matthew 5:6, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Through the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught…
A. The Kingdom of Heaven and how it operates
B. How kingdom citizens should live
Matthew 6:5-8 (NKJV) And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” —Martin Luther
“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.” —Andrew Murray
1. “Pray to your Father who is in the secret place”
What do those words tell us about the Father?
If we want to find Him, then when need to go where He is — in the secret place.
Where we fail the most in prayer, is we fail to pray.
“God is a God who hides Himself from the natural eye. As long as in our worship of God we are chiefly occupied with our own thoughts and exercise, we will not meet Him who is a Spirit, the Unseen One. But to the man who withdraws himself from all that is of the world and man and waits for God alone, the Father will reveal Himself. As he shuts out the world and its life, surrendering himself to be led by Christ into God’s presence, the light of the Father’s love will fall on him.” —Andrew Murray
Mark 1:35 (NIV) Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Matthew 14:23 (NIV) After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone,
Luke 9:18 (NIV) Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
Luke 6:12-13 (NIV) One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.13 When morning came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles:
He was trying to tell us that if we don’t have an intentional, designated, quiet, consistent secret PLACE to meet with Him…then we need to get us one!
Our secret place may change, but the One who meets us there never will.
The prayer closet is a place of…
Reflection and repentance
Love and affection
Gratitude and worship
Confession and declaration
Petition and intercession
Humility and surrender
Vulnerability and trust
Listening and obeying
Being forgiven and forgiving
Exchange
SHOW UP!
Jeremiah 29:12-14 (NIV) “Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord…
Psalm 27:4 (ESV) One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.
Psalm 27:8 (NLT) My heart has heard You say, "Come and talk with me." And my heart responds, "Lord, I am coming."
2. “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly”
Prayer in the secret place cannot be fruitless.
Philippians 4:19 (AMP) And my God will liberally supply (fill until full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
“Prayer is the divine equalizer. Some preach, others teach, a few sing publicly, but all can pray.” —Dick Eastman
3. “Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him”
We should never feel like they have to beg and plead with an unwilling, uncaring God — we simply “ask” because we know He loves us.
We need to trust that He sees and knows better than we do.
Luke 11:11-13 (NKJV) If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts for your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!