It\u2019s impossible to conduct your life as a disciple without setting aside definite times for secret prayer. The main idea of the life of faith is \u201cMy eyes on God, not on people.\u201d When you pray, your motive shouldn\u2019t be to be known as one who prays. Go into an inner chamber\u2014a place where no one will know you are praying\u2014then shut the door and talk to God in secret. Have no motive other than to know your Father in heaven.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words\u201d<\/em> (Matthew 6:7). God is never impressed by earnestness. It isn\u2019t because we go to him with an earnest desire to be heard that he hears us. He hears us on the basis of the redemption; only because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross are we able to approach God in prayer. If Jesus Christ has been formed inside us by spiritual rebirth, he will press forward in our minds and change our attitude about prayer. No longer will we be driven by commonsense concerns for our lives. No longer will we go to God to get our earthly desires met. We\u2019ll go in order to get into perfect communion with him.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone who asks receives\u201d<\/em> (7:8). We pray pious nonsense, without putting our will into it. Then we say that God doesn\u2019t answer our prayers. But we haven\u2019t asked<\/em> for anything! \u201cIf you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you\u201d (John 15:7). Asking means willing ourselves to ask for those things which are in keeping with the God whom Jesus Christ revealed; if we are remaining in him, this is exactly what we\u2019ll do. Whenever Jesus talked about prayer, he talked about it with the simplicity of a child. We complicate things and argue with God. We say, \u201cYes, Lord, but<\/em> . . .\u201d Jesus said, simply, \u201cAsk.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s impossible to conduct your life as a disciple without setting aside definite times for secret prayer. The main idea of the life of faith is \u201cMy eyes on God, not on …<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":2256,"template":"","collection":[41],"class_list":{"0":"post-2691","1":"modern-classic","2":"type-modern-classic","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"collection-prayer"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/modern-classic\/2691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/modern-classic"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/modern-classic"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/modern-classic\/2691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=2691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}