Neville Turley

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ”Mathew 6:6

Jesus taught by example. No matter how busy Jesus was, he always kept in close communion with our Father in heaven. At the height of his popularity he made time to pray. 

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." (Mark 1:35

The gospels testify that throughout his ministry, Jesus took time to withdraw from everyone to be alone with God.

"One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God." (Luke 6:12)

“After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone ,..” (Matthew 14:23)

"Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” (Matthew 26:36)

Jesus had a public ministry but he always found time to pray privately too.  In our verse for today he urges us to do the same.

If our prayers are to be acceptable to God, we need to approach him without distractions and seek his will in a spirit of humility and repentance.  We need to truly repent of our sins.  Often people deeply regret a wrong they have committed.  Repentance in the Biblical sense goes far deeper than remorse. 

True repentance means that we turn away from our sins and turn to God for forgiveness.

It does not matter what we may have done nor whether that wrong can no longer be righted.  The Lord does not want anyone to perish but to come to repentance.  When they do, God remembers that sin no more and even the angels in heaven sing for joy.

Prayer: Oh God thank you for the grace of true repentance that brings us pardon and enables us to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen