All tagged secret

Private Prayer and Public Worship

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Prayer in Church

This morning let’s discuss experiencing private prayer during times of public worship. I have attended many churches during my life and have felt varying degrees of private prayer being welcomed during a service. On the one extreme I have prayed loudly and demonstratively beside Pentecostal brethren, prayed private prayers in a more subdued manner in my current church, and attended "high church" in Churches where very little private prayer is evident or encouraged. However, in each case private prayer does occur… it simply erupts from embattled souls across the sanctuary as believers adorn themselves in the armor of God and enter into personal states of worship, thankfulness, and distress.

Have our places of Prayer all but Disappeared?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Fading Prayer

We go to our mountains, our upper rooms, and our quiet places to pray because we feel close to God there, and feel like we are doing what Jesus Christ taught us, but something else occurs here… we are transformed spiritually, and often times physically. Jesus was strengthened at Gethsemane, and changed in appearance when on the mountain with Moses and Elijah. What is it about us that is changed in our prayer closets, quiet places, and on our own sacred mountains? What occurs within us in our close moments of prayer with God, and during our peaceful walks with Jesus down our own thoughtful roads to Emmaus? Do we visit these places with great expectation? Do we anticipate the quickening, and joy of an encounter with the divine?

Faithfully Facing the World, Together and Alone.

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Trouble and Faith

What do we do when the articles of our faith go missing from within our churches? What do we seek when the Arc of our faith can no longer be found in the houses of worship where we once experienced God’s presence, and forgiveness? If every church, cathedral, temple, and house of worship, were demolished, where would we turn to find God? We should do what so many of us did during the COVID 19 pandemic, and what so many others have done under extreme persecution, we open His Word in our hearts, and seek God in our quiet places by retreating into our own temples to worship Him… into the temples of our bodies, and the safe havens of our homes. In these, the personal sanctuaries of our faith, and belief, we find God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. In these places our spirituality remains safe, and is secure from its enemies. The door to heaven remains open.

The Unseen Hand of God

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , God’s Secret Hand

For some reason we tend to think that Jesus only intercedes for us when we can see evidence that He is doing so, or that God’s help only occurs when, and where we can see His hand moving. It is wrong to think that we will always see some hint of His coming, or that we must feel the ground shaking, or see the waters tremble, as He approaches. Thanks be to God that this is not the case, and that even when we sleep, or are unaware, our Heavenly Father watches over us, He protects us, and He prepares a way for us. In those moments when He is working in secret, and we believe that we are alone, or that God isn’t hearing our prayers, He is at work, and He has surrounded us with angels. Do we have faith in this, or must our eyes be opened before we are able to believe?

The power of joining together in Prayer

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Joint Prayer

There are times when it is more appropriate to pray alone, but it is also good to pray with one another when we pray for common causes, or in intercession for one of our brethren. Scripture tells us that we are to pray in secret, that Jesus would separate himself from the others to pray, and that prophets spoke alone with God, but there are other times when the disciples came together in joint prayer, and the Israelites came together before God in prayer. Praying together can be uplifting to us personally as we reinforce one another in our commitment, cause, and devotion, but it also increases the power of our petition, and the acceptance of God’s answer.

Praying in Secret, and Working in Privacy

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Secret Prayers

Are our prayers private conversations with God, or are they like public meetings, and announcements, performed as if we were politicians who must hold every discussion in a public place? Praying in secret is more than just keeping our faith hidden from the world, it is maintaining it as a private relationship with God that is not lived in public so that we would receive accolades from others; no, we are meant to please God alone. If those about us say “look at this man who shows little faith!”, and they say this because they are not privy to our quiet prayers and personal relationship with God, then count this as a blessing.

Practicing Righteousness in Secret, and Delivering the Gospel boldly without Contradiction

Richard Forbes
Christian, Daily Devotional , Secret Righteousness , Personal Relationship

We are told to go into every nation delivering the good news of Jesus Christ, but at the same time we are warned not to practice our righteousness before others; does this sound like a contradiction to you? How should we go about telling people of God, and Jesus without presenting ourselves as righteous? The answer is twofold, and rather simple... don’t make the message you are teaching, or preaching, appear to be about yourself, and secondly, conduct your personal life of faith in secret.

Barefoot in our Quiet Places, Secret Places; the Holy Places

Richard Forbes
Christian, Daily Devotional , Secret Places , Holy Places

We spoke yesterday about seeking out quiet places to pray, and this is important if we are to be alone with God, and hear His voice as it speaks to us, but there is one more ingredient that we touched on briefly... a secret place. If we are highly sought out, and can’t find solitude otherwise we need to find a secret, or unknown, place where we will not be disturbed as we pray, a place where we can listen to God, and He can speak openly with us. Jesus wandered into the wilderness in the early morning hours to places that others were not privy to, and met God there.

Finding our Quiet, and Secret places of Prayer

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Quiet , Secret , Places of Prayer

Do you make time to be alone with God? When the world is surrounding you and closing in from all sides is there a quiet place you can retreat to and speak intimately with the Lord? Jesus needed to withdraw from the world in such times, and we need to do the same. There is no way that we can approach our Father with a singleness of heart, mind, and soul if the clamor of the world is so loud that it continuously distracts us. Find a time, a place, and a method of separating yourself unto God.

Prayer, Praise, and Worship, in our quiet predawn hours

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Morning Prayer

How should we begin our days as Christians? There are so many verses in the Bible that give us instruction regarding our faith as dawn approaches, and as we look towards the life of Jesus we find that He rose early each morning to pray, and was resurrected in the predawn darkness as well. So how should we meet OUR new day? Well, we should use the example set by our savior, and the songs of Psalms whose lyrics, and melody, are the sounds of early morning worship.