Chapter 34
Good Monday Morning to this new week 34 of 202
Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace. Matthew 6.6
Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the silent hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this fleeting world may rest in your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Much of the content of the sermon on the mount centres around the secret heart.
Jewish homes had a place for secret devotion. Over the porch, or entrance of the house, there was frequently a small room of the size of the porch, raised a story above the rest of the house, expressly appropriated for the place of retirement. To this place, to the “upper room”, the disciples were guided to when they wished to hold communion with God.
Prayer in secret is an incredible privilege, we get the privilege of being with our Father in heaven. Only He completely knows what we will receive at his hand in those moments with him, while we gain peace from his presence, and from casting our cares upon him.
A closed room, a closet, a grove, a mountain, a garden, a hill …. The closed-door is more likely referring to the door of your heart. Pray your prayers between you and God, and isn’t it there where faith begins?
God the Father is a spirit he is also unseen, a secret mystery. Yet God is also omnipresent, He sees what is secret, and even knows the mysteries of a person’s heart. Through the mystery and quiet of opening and closing doors in the secret place, there is great reward in knowing God and coming to him by faith.
The New King James has a very special way of concluding the verse;
“and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly”. If we take the metaphor of the door of the closet; it is part of our decision to go to him, to “close the door” while it is God’s presence and Gods grace to be there and “open the door”.
Wishing you a great start to this new week.
Philemon