01/11/2026
How do we begin our days? Do we begin them by reading the Bible? Do we pray for forgiveness, and for all the active prayer requests on our list of wants? Do we read a morning devotional? Maybe we write one or add an entry in our prayer journal? All these things are good, but do we take the time to secretly have an intimate conversation with our Heavenly Father? My friends, God wants to hear more than our personal wants and of the needs of others... He desires to be in a personal relationship with us that is both intimate and which deeply reveals us spiritually.
“But 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 6:6 ESV
Each morning, I rise very early to go through my morning ritual of prayer, reading scripture, reading a devotional, and then going to God in prayer. Following this I begin to write my devotional in accordance with my calling and then begin to prepare myself for the remainder of my day. This all begins each morning with the sound of either my internal or physical alarm as I rise to take my morning coffee and retreat to the quiet of my prayer chair, closing the doors of the room and leaving the world behind me.
Having a quiet place to seek God is important, preparing our minds to commune with Him by reading scripture and a devotional message is good, praying for forgiveness and all those people in our lives, our church, the country, the world, is excellent, but what God really seeks from us is that heartfelt time of secret relationship and personal conversation. Do you spend your mornings caught up in the mechanics of preparation and dutiful prayer, but neglect to talk with God about those intimate things of which close friends speak?
“and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"—and he was called a friend of God.”
James 2:23 ESV
I have written volumes regarding prayer, but if I could boil it all down for someone who only had time for a few minutes of prayer, I would tell them to have secret personal conversations of prayer with God. Without a relationship the other prayers and things are quite meaningless. This year I am reading “The Andrew Murray Daily Reader”, and as I read this morning’s message I received confirmation of this in a few words that Pastor Murray wrote; let’s listen...
“The one essential in the morning watch is fellowship with God. Of course, there is the danger of substituting prayer and bible study for fellowship with God.” - Andrew Murray
There is great temptation to substitute the mechanics of our faith and religion for the all-important relationship that God wishes to have with us. We often speak of walking with God, but there is much more to this than just following after Him... when we walk with Him we are His companion. Traveling together implies the development of a relationship, perhaps even holding hands as we walk.
“"Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?”
Amos 3:3 ESV
If we have dedicated personal time with God... not as the emissary of another, or in intercession for other causes, but in prayer as close and intimate friends. If we do this then God will take great pleasure in us, and we in Him. Enoch walked with God and it pleased Him. Do we please God?
“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.”
Hebrews 11:5 ESV
Are we someone who others would refer to as being a member of the “inner circle”? Do we have God’s ear? If not, then we have neglected our relationship because we should all be this close to God, and He should hear each of us as friends. We listen closest to those who are closest to us. We trust those who we know best, and we confide our deepest secrets in our most intimate friends. This is true in our personal relationship with one another, and it is equally true in our intimate relationship with God.
We are all familiar with someone who wants to know all about us, and desires for us to reveal our innermost secrets to them… yet some are unwilling to share those same things about themselves with us. These people are not our trusted friends, but merely busybodies who look to take advantage of us through our openness. God doesn’t want us to be a busybody; He wants to know us in the most intimate revelations and confidence. He wants us to be willing to share with Him our darkest secrets, and the most embarrassing moments of our lives and sinfulness without fear, and if we do this He will speak to us of things regarding Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the hidden secrets pertaining to Himself. God already knows our heart, but He desires that we willfully open it up to Him in trust, and love… Are we a close friend of God? If not, are we desirous of, or willing to, enter into this kind of relationship with Him?
“Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.”
Psalm 62:8 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for allowing me to walk with you, and it thrills me to think that you would call me friend. My greatest desire, Lord, is to know you better with each passing moment. I wish to reveal my deepest secrets to you in trust and with ease, and in our secret conversations I pray that you will comfort me and reveal to me the mysteries of yourself. Holy Father, thank you for the early morning hours of each day and our intimate times together; thank you Abba for reaching out to me. Let nothing stand between us Lord, and may you always recognize my voice when I come to you in prayer. Hear me Holy Father and know that when I make prayerful petition to you in penitence for my sin, or in intercession for others, that I seek you as your child, and a friend, that asks these things of you without fear or reservation. Give me open access to your confidence as I come to you in secret and seek you in humility. Hear sincerity and love in my voice Father and walk with me always. I praise you Merciful Father and reach out to you as more than my acquaintance, but as my closest friend, confidant, and Almighty God. How great you are, and how amazing is your grace with which you shower me and by which you call me friend. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who is with me always, in my dreams during the darkest night’s when I slumber, in the secret prayers I pray when I rise from bed, and throughout my days as we walk close beside one another. In these ways I share myself openly with you. Holy are you who sent your Son Jesus Christ to live, suffer, die, and to be resurrected to remit me and the world from sin and to defeat death so that we will have eternal life. Holy are you who loves me without end or boundaries and calls me your child, and your friend. Holy and righteous is our time spent with one another in loving relationship, and for all these things I pray without ceasing, and give you the honor and glory forevermore.
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
Romans 11:36 ESV
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Rich Forbes