Our Reward in Quiet

How we express ourselves is how our reward will be given, but not in the way we expect.

“⁵And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ⁶But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” — Matthew 6:5-6 (ESV)

As Jesus begins to speak on the proper way to pray, you can see that He first discusses the rewards that we will receive from our prayer. Verse 5 discusses the overt outward appearances that are used to let everyone see that we “are holy”. Where there is a time and a place for our prayer out loud and in public, prayer for everyone to see is not exactly what God is looking for in our prayer. In fact when taking that approach, our reward is just that, being seen in public as praying for all to see. We get the pats on the back and the nodding looks from those around us as to saying “good job in praying, it was really well”. And that is really where it ends in the grand scheme of things.

In verse 6 above, you can see that Jesus also discusses the quiet personal prayer as we sit and have an intimate conversation with our father. In those instances, it is just me and God having a chat with fewer distractions and I am not trying to impress the masses or anyone I may want to influence. This conversation is one that is just between God and me for the purpose of uninterrupted discussion and conversation. This prayer is one where focus is on the substance of the prayer and not the structure of dynamics of it.

As I mentioned above, there is a time and place for public out loud prayer. I have to be careful in those situations to have the same sort of conversation with God that I would have in my private room with the door shut. I have to remember that prayer is an intimate conversation between God and me and is meant for spilling myself to Him to get it out and seek repentance for that which I have done and thank Him for all that He has done in my life and ask for assistance in fulfilling His plan.

Whether in private or in public I should be seeking only to be rewarded with that which comes from God and not that which comes from man. Ultimately, man can do nothing for me, whereas God can and does do all for me. My reward comes with that intimate conversation with my Father and not in the public oration for all to hear.

What type of interaction with God are you having? Are you seeking for everyone to see and hear you speaking with God? What if your interactions with God were of the intimate private affair and you seek for your reward from Him and not from those around you?