5700 Rudnick Ave. Woodland Hills, CA 91367 (818) 346-6968 Home > Resources > Prayer Resources > …Your Father Who Sees What Is Secret Will Reward You PRAYER RESOURCES   WHEN YOU PRAY... YOUR FATHER WHO SEES WHAT IS SECRET WILL REWARD YOU Maxie Dunnam Isaiah 40:27-21   Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel,   “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by God’?   Have you not known? Have you not heard?   The Lord is the everlasting God,   The Creator of the ends of the earth.   He does not faint or grow weary,   His understanding is unsearchable.   He gives power to the faint,   And strengthens the powerless.   Even youths will faint and be weary;   And the young will fall exhausted;   But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,   They shall mount up with wings like eagles,   They shall run and not be weary,   They shall walk and not faint.   Jesus said, “When you pray… shut your door and pray to your Father privately. Your Father who sees all private things will reward you.” To be alone with God is necessary because, as we considered in our last insert, we do need strength that is not our own. Our own strength and other human support is not enough. When we fail, when we don’t make it or are turned off by others, we need to know that there is Another who can survive humiliation and failure and can help us survive.   Isn’t it true that the degree to which we feel God’s presence and power in the daily affairs of life depends upon the degree to which we share with God alone in our “private room” or in the private company of our prayer group or partner?   As we grow in our prayer life, we will come to experience more and more what Jesus meant when he said that the Father “will reward you.” Certainly we realize that we do not pray in order to be rewarded. We also realize that God does not play favorites and reward the righteous while abandoning the lost. In fact, the story of Job tells us that often the righteous fare much worse than the sinners. We learn the same from the cross! Perhaps we will be better off to consider the “rewards” of prayer as natural consequences of praying. Just as every other act has its consequences, so does the act of prayer. So plant this fact firmly in your mind and heart: The God with whom we can communicate is capable of answering our prayers.   The writer to the Hebrews encourages us here: “Whoever would approach [God] must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb.11:6)   At this early stage of our journey in prayer, three consequences need to be acknowledged and emphasized.   1.  The consequence (reward) of God’s presence. God is always present, but the end of all praying is to know the presence of God within our lives. All sorts of consequences flow from the greatest of all gifts of God.   2.  The consequence (reward) of power. Our emphasis in our last insert was on this fact: God makes a power not our own available to us.   3.  The consequence (reward) of guidance. Prayer, being alone with God, opens our lives to the guidance of God by its very nature, prayer encourages a receptive mood.   Francois Fenelon, one of the spiritual giants of all centuries, has written a prayer that will assist you in waiting in your secret place for the God who will reward you openly.   Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of Thee; Thou only knowest what I need; thou lovest me better than I know how to love myself. O Father! Give to Thy child that which he himself knows not how to ask. I dare not ask either for crosses or consolations: I simply present myself before Thee, I open my heart to Thee. Behold my needs, which I know not myself; see and do according thy tender mercy. Smite, or heal; depress me, or raise me up: I adore all Thy purposes without knowing them; I am silent; I offer myself in sacrifice: I yield myself to Thee; I would have no other desire than to accomplish Thy will. Teach me to pray. Thyself in me. Amen.