Until now, we have learned and studied examples of prayers of praise, confession, petition, intercession, and Kingdom advancement. We could call these the What’s of prayer. But for these final three days, let’s look together at what God’s word says about the Who, Where, and When of praying.
Let’s begin by reading Matthew 6:1-6, particularly focusing on the last two verses. Christ is instructing us to avoid the temptation to impress others with our prayers. While not all of us struggle with praying loudly in synagogues or on street corners in particular, many of us do struggle with the synagogues of the 21st century – the social media street corners that affirm our righteousness in the language of “likes” and hearts.
Eesh.
I write humbly today as a guilty sister, having publicly used His name for my own glory.
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them…” (Matthew 6:1, emphasis added)
It’s all about the heart here, sisters. Whether it’s on Instagram or as a guest at your neighbor’s table, each time we call out His name publicly, we must carefully examine: am I doing this to be impressive, or am I doing this because He’s impressive?
And the answer to that question is between you and Him. In the quiet times.
Our Lord is calling us to quiet prayer so that we can give Him our undivided attention, free of any ulterior motives, free to hear Him and to speak humbly to Him.
But, it doesn’t end here. Private prayer should not be the only praying we do.
James 5:16 charges us to confess our sins to one another and to pray for one another.
Acts 2:42 shows us the fellowship of the believers in the early church devoting themselves to breaking bread and praying together.
And in Acts 20, we see Paul preparing to leave Ephesus, his goodbye flowing naturally from thanks, to warning, to quoting Christ’s own words, and finally into a time of prayer and embracing in Christian community.
Why?
Because the Christian life is personal, but it is not private.
God requires pure motives and contrite spirits when we go before Him. He also loves to see His people come together to come to Him – corporately seeking His face, lifting one another up in intercession, praising Him for His works.
Christ Himself invited His disciples to join Him as He talked to the Father (can you imagine???) in Luke 9:28, John 17, and of course in Gethsemane (Mark 14:32).
The simple “Who” of prayer is first you and Him, alone and unimpressive; and second, believers together before Him, corporately praising, confessing, petitioning, interceding, and asking that His Kingdome come and His will be done.
Another layer of "self" is being exposed this morning. Thank you Raechel for putting it out there!
My heart's cry is that God can somehow use the words I write to bless another individual. I want my life to count for SOMETHING. I have fought so hard to live this life so that it could mean something, great or small, for the Kingdom. All the pain, adversity and struggle…please Lord, let it not be all for vanity!
Yet, vanity it is, when I come back and forth looking to be approved with a "like", an "amen" or some other kind of man-made score that makes me seem "okay," to others. Yes, it feels good to be a blessing to someone, or to make someone's day better. But, I have to continually keep my pride in check.
Am I doing ____ to make myself shine? Or do I want to point people to the TRUE LIGHT of the world – Jesus?
Where is that fine line? And how close am I to going over it?
Lots to chew on this morning sisters. God bless you all!
Thanks for the hard truth today. It is so hard to be a person and live with other people and not attempt to make ourselves look good. I wrote about Proverbs 3:5-6 yesterday on my blog and how being whole hearted is so, so difficult. Our image is another place where being completely honest is nearly impossible. Pure motives are what I am looking for. The Audience of One!
The internet is such an interesting place as far as honesty. I think more people try to be who they are not, but it also allows some people to lose the facade and be real.
I am so thankful for today's devo…Much Grace Ladies
I am guilty! Not news to God, but takes me right back to confession prayer, which shouldn't surprise me. Praise, Confession, Petition, Kingdom Extension…everyday. I just shared Ibukun's comments from yesterday with my Facebook friends and asked them to pray. The question, I asked myself before God is this: what was my motive ? After careful examination in light of the scripture today, the greater motive was pure, but there was a smudge or two of Carolyn in the background, which I acknowledged before the Throne.
I have to go to the Acts 2 passage and exhort all of us who visit this site to dwell there for just a moment:
"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42, 46, 47 NIV)"
We come here to learn, to fellowship, to commune with each other and with our Lord, we come to pray and to do so in a public forum, opening of ourselves before God and this community. We do this regularly, some daily, some several times a day. "Together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God, and enjoying the favor of the people." ( wish I could underline that).
Why do we do it? So, that fellow believers are encourage, so we each are blessed, and the Kingdom is extended, "The
Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. "
Yes, we need to examine our motives and confess our sins, but SISTERS, Don't let Satan steal the joy of the sharing our prayers.
As Raechel put it:
"Because the Christian life is personal, but it is not private."
Be blessed today, SRT Sisters!
I don't think I can say enough how much I love this SRT community.
How great is it that today's message struck on the community we have in believers? Praying for all of you today. I wish there were someway we could all pray together.
Pray that each of us would feel convicted if there is more of us and less of God happening in our lives, but also that we would know the freedom we have in Him.
Why couldn't we all pray together? Couldn't we find two or three common times in the day to all sit down, turn everything else off, and just pray together. I know we are all over the world in different time zones – which is so cool – but if we chose two or three times in the same 24 hour span, wouldn't we hit on a time that everyone could be available at least once to pray together? Raechel & SRT leaders/writers – could this work? It could be a monthly thing – SRT Community Prayer or something like that. Either to pray on a specific need/praise/petition/etc or just open prayer? Could we all log on to SRT at the same time to see a written prayer or scripture verse, and then we all pray it together in that moment. How powerful would that be? I would love to do that, but have no idea how to really make it happen.
Guilty as charged.
Wow! What a Godly smack in the face this devotional was this morning! I have never even thought about my motives when I post a scripture or anything to facebook or twitter, but now I will certainly think twice, and maybe once more after that!
It's YOUR glory, Lord Jesus, not mine. Keep me humble and seeking your face at all times throughout the day. And Holy Spirit, convict me of anything you DON'T want me to post, or anything that NEEDS to be put on any social media site, in Jesus' name, amen.
I definitely struggle with this, mostly because I know that, at times, I am still trying to "earn" my way back to God, when that's not how God works at all. I want to do amazing things for God, but I have to step back sometimes and remind myself that sometimes doing amazing things for God involves even the smallest, most un-noticeable acts.
I have a lot of feelings about today's devotion, but mostly conviction. But that's a good thing.
Confessing I’m guilty of this as well. Thanks, Raechel, for the thought provoking devo. Thanks, Stephanie, for your post…great questions to ask one’s self. Thanks to all you sisters for sharing. Prayers for us all.