Thursday 8 Jul 2021

July 8: Matthew 6:5-8
 
Key Verse: Matthew 6:7
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
 
Devotion:
After Jesus had told the disciples how they should not behave as the hypocrites were behaving in the synagogues, He reminded them they should keep their prayer life in a similar manner and not to go after publicity for what they were saying! When people are saying things out loud just so others are going to hear them and think well of them, they are just saying things out loud! Jesus wants us to pray to God from our hearts and not necessarily from our mouths!
 
Jesus often closed Himself off from others when He was going to pray to His Father; not because it was a big secret what He was going to pray about, but because it was a very personal time between Him and God the Father. This is still how God would prefer us to handle our prayers too – so they come from our heart directly to God’s ears...
 
It is not as if we have got to pray before God will look out for us; God already knows what we need in our lives and He already has a plan to do what is right. But, we need to know in our hearts we are asking God so when our prayers are answered, our faith will be made whole by seeing them answered.
 
If we go about shouting our prayers out to make sure other people hear them, then you could say we have already had our rewards – because we have let others know our requests and we know they have heard them... This does not mean God is going to answer them. He would rather we ask from our hearts and allow Him to do what is right and at the perfect time.
 
Points to Ponder:
How do you pray to God?
 
Will you spend some quiet time with God today?