{"id":13310,"date":"2015-09-16T09:29:08","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T13:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=13310"},"modified":"2015-09-17T09:50:04","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T13:50:04","slug":"praying-to-god-in-secret-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=13310","title":{"rendered":"Praying to God in Secret"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"key-verse-box\">\n<p><strong>When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place\u2026 \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=Matthew+6%3A6\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew 6:6<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .entry-meta --><\/p>\n<div class=\"top-rule\"><\/div>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-GE_ClB45Ew\" width=\"560\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nThe primary thought in the area of religion is\u2014 keep your eyes on God, not on people. Your motivation should not be the desire to be known as a praying person. Find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer.\u201cWhen you pray, do not use vain repetitions\u2026\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+6:7\">Matthew 6:7<\/a>).\u00a0God does not hear us because we pray earnestly\u2014 He hears us solely on the basis of redemption. God is never impressed by our earnestness. Prayer is not simply getting things from God\u2014 that is only the most elementary kind of prayer. Prayer is coming into perfect fellowship and oneness with God. If the Son of God has been formed in us through regeneration (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Galatians+4:19\">see Galatians 4:19<\/a>), then He will continue to press on beyond our common sense and will change our attitude about the things for which we pray.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone who <em>asks<\/em> receives\u2026\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+7:8\">Matthew 7:8<\/a>). We pray religious nonsense without even involving our will, and then we say that God did not answer\u2014 but in reality we have never <em>asked<\/em> for anything. Jesus said, \u201c\u2026you will ask what you <em>desire<\/em>\u2026\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=John+15:7\">John 15:7<\/a>). Asking means that our will must be involved. Whenever Jesus talked about prayer, He spoke with wonderful childlike simplicity. Then we respond with our critical attitude, saying, \u201cYes, but even Jesus said that we must <em>ask<\/em>.\u201d But remember that we have to ask things of God that are in keeping with the God whom Jesus Christ revealed.<\/p>\n<p>_______________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Journal Entry for September 16 2015-JDV<\/p>\n<p>Lord, thank You for the encouragement and instructions about prayer. Too often my prayers turn into requests and thanks for blessings and opportunities and concerns about trials and challenges. Today I was reminded that I can really come to know You when we simply talk and walk together. Please help me understand more and more about how to simply be connected with You in a daily minute by minute discussion with my father in heaven.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place\u2026 \u2014Matthew 6:6 The primary thought in the area of religion is\u2014 keep your eyes on God, not on people. Your motivation should not be the desire to be known as a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13310"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13310"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13317,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13310\/revisions\/13317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}