His Love Frees

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

(Matthew 6:5-6) 

People can get up to all sorts of spiritual activities in the secular culture we live in. For example, you can stroll in a park and see someone doing yoga exercises, or meditating, or sit in a library and observe a muslim prostrating on a mat in an enclosed area. There are spiritualised rituals too, which seem to have nothing to do with a god but certainly count as making time for meaning. Last night, for example, I went to a professional rugby match and sat in a crowd of lively fans. They found purpose in adoring their team, which was really just a group of men no different to the opposing side. But the combined identity of the players and fans meant something. There was something religious about it. 

And in the midst of this colourful world, where we followers of the Way are told to go into a “room,” there runs the temptation of imitating others in our prayers to Christ. What is the real difference, after all, between the devotions of sincere Christians praying in comparison to other faiths? Would a casual observer, noting the hands raised, heads bowed and reading of holy words note much difference?

The difference is Jesus himself. We aren’t praying to an idea but to the living reality of the resurrected Holy One. For that reason, we go to a “room” much like any other religious person. And perhaps – again like other spiritual people using props like music, apps, written words – we take time to say what we want to say to the divine being. 

However, Jesus didn’t tell us to only “go into your room”, he also said, “close the door.” And with that comes the promise that the Father rewards us. We need to carve time out for the Lord regularly and find a space to do so, but also close off from distractions to really engage in what he wants to reveal to us, as the Living God, not a fictitious character. 

So if we find a room but there are still distractions in it – cats meowing, children screaming, phones ringing – politely but lovingly “shut the door.” Jesus himself used to draw off the public track and went aside, out of view, on mountains to be with his Father. Taking time with God means not just going to a place, but ensuring that in that location we are spending time with Him and not with other things. The Father is unseen but that still means He is omnipresent and “sees what is done in secret” – looking into our hearts. 

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