Prayer

IN MATTHEW 6:5, this is what our Lord Jesus Christ says—

“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.”

Here, our Lord Jesus Christ is teaching the Christians that, whenever they pray, they must not do what the hypocrites do. These hypocrites are fond of standing as they pray in synagogues and street corners because they want to be seen by people. Please, bear in mind that the main issue here is, they pray “to be seen by other people.” And for this reason, Jesus Christ forbade His Christian followers to pray to pray if being seen by others. Otherwise, they will not merit any reward from God. Christ said, “Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.”

In praying, our Lord Jesus Christ prescribed a definite manner, which must be followed by the Christians. This is written in Matthew 6:6—

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

It is clear that Christ is commanding us to pray in secret, and the only parties that must know about is are God and the suppliant.

This is the reason why, we can say that, what most of the religious organizations today are doing is wrong, especially those who have radio and television programs. They pray while in front of a television camera. That is a clear manifestation of their hypocrisy. In other words, if praying, while standing up, in synagogues and street corners is already against the will of God, what more if you are going to pray over radio and television.