January 13
Verse of the Day for January 13
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.Matthew 6:6 KJV
The Key of Beginnings · Day 13 of 31
Reflection · 3 min read
Shut Thy Door
Jesus has just described people who pray standing in the synagogue and on street corners, and he says something blunt about them: they have their reward. Not that they get nothing. That they get exactly what they were praying for, which was to be seen.
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.
Enter into thy closet. The word is a storeroom — the small windowless room at the back where a household kept its supplies. It was chosen because it was the one room in a first-century house with a door and nothing interesting in it.
And shut thy door. That instruction is not about secrecy so much as about removing the audience, including the imagined one.
Most of us do not pray on street corners. We do something subtler: we pray while half-composing how we would describe the prayer. The door is for that.
What he promises the person behind it is not a better prayer. It is a Father who is there in secret, which is to say a relationship that does not require a witness to be real.
The door is not for secrecy.It is for removing the audience.
A storeroom was the least spiritual room in the house. That is probably why he picked it.
Find your version of it, and shut the door on the version of yourself that is watching.
Carry this today
Who are you still performing for when you pray alone?
Pray
Read Matthew 6:5–8
5And 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. 6But 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. 7But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Keep praying
Reflection by Collins Asein, from the daily devotionals in the PrayerKey app. Bible text: King James Version.