Beginning Your Relationship with the Father....

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door pray to the Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Matthew 6:6



Jesus is simply speaking of building a personal intimate relationship with him. We want to have time at some point in our day where we dedicate time to spend in prayer. I particularly like the mornings. Its quiet for me, my kids are off to school and usually the baby is sleeping. During my quiet time I start with telling the Lord how much I love him. Then I spend time reflecting on my heart. When I say this I literally think of things I might have said that were hurtful, areas that I may have fallen short, things that I should have done and didn't and then I ask God to reveal to me any errors in my heart that I may not have noticed. He might not reveal that part right off but once you get into prayer TRUST ME you won't leave without him showing you something about yourself. There are times that it is difficult to swallow, but that's why he wants an intimate relationship. Its OK to spill your emotions, pains, heartaches,sickness, joys, happiness, WHATEVER!! He wants those type of things because it draws us closer to him and we are then vulnerable to Jesus and that's OK because our trust is in him.

The end of the passage, he said he will reward us openly. What does it mean to be rewarded openly? Below are some of the rewards that you begin to see:

1. There is a renewing power that comes every time you enter in to prayer with the Lord. As you build a relationship you begin to fall in love. People around you begin to notice because  there is a "glow" about you.
2. You feel refreshed. After you go through the cleansing, heart wash you come out of prayer feeling like your soul has been washed by Jesus Living water. Well it has! and the reward is, you don't feel burdened down and heavy, your stress free and your spirit is lifted.
3. Cares and worries diminish. The more you seek Him the more you begin to trust him.
4. Petitions are answered. Have you ever prayed for a need or a family member (friend) for their salvation or freedom? When you see that prayer come to pass, you just want to bust out and have a personal praise party? Yes that Gods reward in the open and its a great feeling.

There are several more rewards I could mention but you get the idea. Just remember that in all that he does we give him all the praise and glory. We never want to forget that he is the reason that we are so blessed today.

So I encourage each one of you to step out and take the time to take your prayer life to another level. I don't like using the term challenge because it shouldn't be a challenge to go before a loving Father and begin to share your life with him. Just open your heart. God Bless you all.