Into the Flip Side

In Matthew 5 Jesus is talking on the mountain side to his disciples and he contrast motives. Some give gifts so that others will praise them. Jesus tells his disciples to give gifts in secret so that no one will see what you do. In Matthew 6 Jesus continues this theme of contrasting with the subject of prayer. Some pray on the street corners or while standing in the synagogues so that people will see them.

this verse “so that people can see them” means literally that (according to the translation provided on bible.org). they are doing this to be seen. Is that what prayer is about? Man I have been guilty of this. Maybe not on the street corner, but definately in church. I have prayed prayers in small group so that people will see me. I have prayed at church in ministry sessions so that people will see me. Jesus says you have received your reward if that is what you are doing. It is a unsatisfying, restraining reward(this idea was discussed in a commentary but I can’t remember which one to give it proper credit). This reward is cunning because it makes me think that the rewards to prayer are not life producing, relationship producing. This is the lie that results from anything that is not connected to Jesus. I received my reward for praying so that others would see me and it left me wanting. It is the same wanting that is produced from going about things on my own, or living for Jesus on my terms.

Why am I talking about this on a blog or at all? Because I believe firmly that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit want to communicate with us. I also believe that when we present the word of God their is great power in it.
I have lied to myself. I have said that my prayer is stale because prayer is ineffective. maybe I have not been that direct but somewhere inside I have convinced myself of this. This is a lie.

God has responded to this lie (as He has to all lies). Matthew 6:6 “But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.” NET
Am I receiving the reward that only praying in secret to God provides? I want that reward, and hopefully not because of what it looks like to others, but because of what it means. This reward is in contrast to a reward that is received from wanting people to see me praying.

So what is this reward? I hope to flush this out a little in my next post.

As a side note, I use bible.org for a lot of my online studies. I highly recommend this resource, they have access to dictionaries, commentaries, and completely original translation that has the translators notes so you can see how they came to the english translation from the orginal language. Excellent tool!

"The NET Bible® is freely available at www.bible.org/ .