Reading your Bible for Today February 22

February 22: Matthew 6:5-13

KJV Key Verse: Matthew 6:7
7 But when ye pray , use not vain repetitions , as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 

Devotion:
Just as our actions should not be aimed at ourselves or at promoting ourselves in some manner, our prayers must not be either. Our prayers are our direct link to God through Christ. They are not something that has to be said in front of others, they are not something for others to hear just to show how dedicated we are. They are not something which will show others we care about them. They are simply us talking to Christ, bringing forward our requests to Him in person. Our personal relationship with Him means that we should bring our prayers directly to Him, not via agents or lawyers or even priests, but directly to Him.

Those who do pray out loud just so they can be noticed in some manner have just got their reward – they have been noticed. They are not praying with any sincerity to Christ, but simply about Him. Why should Christ have to listen to anything like that? They have lost that personal link because they have rejected it; Christ is still waiting for the personal link to be re-established and kept by faithful and personal prayers. We should not recite the Lord's Prayer each day unless we mean what the words say (we'll cover that tomorrow). We do not have to pray out of a prayer book; God wants to hear what is in our hearts and what we would have Him do in our lives.

We can shut ourselves in a room, or even in a hole in the ground; no matter where we are, God will be listening so long as we are still making our personal link with Him. So long as we make sure that our prayers are our personal link with Him, He will be listening. He wants to hear what is on our hearts, He wants to hear our worries, He wants to hear us say we are sorry for what we have done wrong... But He wants to hear each different thing, not just that we are sorry about “things we have done wrong”. It does not have to be shouted out loud, just a quiet personal talk with Christ...

Points to Ponder:
Do you tell everyone what you do wrong?

Isn't it time you opened up your heart with Christ?