Prayer— Battle in “The Secret Place”

When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly —Matthew 6:6

Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “. . . pray to your Father who is in the secret place. . . .” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.

We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, “This needs to be done, and I have to do that today.” Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from “the secret place”— He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.

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禱告的選擇與禱告的衝突

你禱告的時候，要進你的內屋，關上門，禱告你在暗中的父。 （太六6）

耶穌不是說[夢想你在暗中的父]，而是[禱告你在暗中的父]禱告是一項意志的行動。我們進到內室，關上門，這時最難的事就是禱告。我們無法控制心思，就是思想的浮游。私禱最大的爭戰，就是要勝過心不在焉。必須控制心思，集中心力去禱告。

我們必須選一個地方來禱告，可是我們一進去，那蠅災就來了－－這個要做，那個也要做。 [關上門。 ]在隱密處的安靜，就是著意地把情感的門關上，只紀念神自己。神是在暗中的，他從暗中察看；他看我們，不同別人看我們，也不同我們看自己。活在內室之中，就根本沒有可能懷疑神，我們對他比對一切更肯定。耶穌說是在暗中的，而不在別的地方。進入內室，你就會在一切日常事務當中，發現神時刻同在。要習慣每一件事與神來往。每天清早張開眼，就該把門向神大開，讓神進來，否則你整天的工作就不對勁。向神大開心門，向暗中的父禱告，這樣，你每一件生活中公開的事，都必打上神同在的印記。

祈禱◆噢，主啊，在清晨的時間與你相交是何等美好。願你耐心地幫助我，將這寧靜的高貴時刻，轉化在這天的活動中。