{"id":2847,"date":"2010-09-16T03:07:36","date_gmt":"2010-09-16T11:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=2847"},"modified":"2010-09-16T03:38:50","modified_gmt":"2010-09-16T11:38:50","slug":"praying-to-god-in-secret-9-16-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=2847","title":{"rendered":"Praying to God in Secret 9-16-2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

Praying to God in Secret<\/h2>\n
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September 16, 2010<\/div>\n
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When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place . . . \u2014Matthew 6:6<\/a><\/div>\n
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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 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you pray, do not use vain repetitions . . .\u201d (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 (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

\u201cEveryone who asks<\/em> receives . . .\u201d (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 asked<\/em> for anything. Jesus said, \u201c. . . you will ask what you desire<\/em>. . .\u201d (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 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

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September 16, 2010<\/p>\n

Journal Entry for Today-JDV<\/p>\n

I wonder what happened to those \u201cimmediate answers\u201d that used to show up\u00a0 instantaneously (or so it seemed). When I was a very young Christian and believed that God was my cosmic bellhop, it seemed that He delivered on all of my prayers as soon as I offered them up. Nowadays it seems like He takes longer and longer.<\/p>\n

And God says\u2026\u201dAs you seek more and more of Me, and you seek to become more like Jesus I use patience and time to shape and mold you. You have become more focused on others as you are being\u00a0transformed.\u00a0You will also notice that more and more you are seeking Me and not just what I can deliver for you. You are now starting to understand that real peace and joy does not come from delivering things to you or delivering you from circumstances. Real joy and peace comes from being connected to Me and your prayers are the means by which we are joined.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Praying to God in Secret September 16, 2010 \u00a0 When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place . . . \u2014Matthew 6:6 \u00a0 The primary thought in the area of religion is\u2014 keep your eyes on God, not on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847"}],"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=2847"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2849,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions\/2849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}