"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."
Matthew 6:5-6
These are some verses that are quoted pretty commonly, but as I was reading today they stood out and I think I understood a little bit more. This is God telling us that prayer isn't about other people, but about us. About ourselves and how we connect with God. If we cut out the distraction of worrying about what someone else is going to think of our prayers, we can get to the real work of communicating with our heavenly father. Not saying that prayers in public or with other people isn't a good skill to learn, but the purpose is almost never to display our faith to others--there are typically much better ways to set an example of goodness, and making it a display distracts from being able to be sincere and open, hindering that heavenly connection that we need.
Today, let's talk with God, banishing any external thoughts and focusing on that relationship and on really telling God what we're thinking and feeling and wanting to change in our lives. Let's try the closet idea if things are distracting us. Maybe we can focus on the fact that God loves us and wants to connect with us and bless and help us reach our righteous goals. Prayer can be so much more than a display if we remember that we aren't doing this for other people, or even for God... we're doing it because it helps us, like calling a friend when we need to hear a friendly voice. :)
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