The Secret Place of the Morning and the Evening

Matthew 6:6

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Without question, one of Satan's greatest skills is his ability to keep us distracted from building our relationship with God by keeping us focused on the business of life.  One of his greatest lies is planting the seed in our minds that God does not want to hear about everything in our lives.  Through the perfect work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we can turn both of Satan's tactics against him.

The first thing that we should do each day in the privacy of the morning is to invite the Holy Spirit to join us throughout the day.  Then everything public in our busy lives will be marked by His presence.  Everything that comes our way as a challenge or a trial can be handed to Him immediately through brief and constant prayer.

Because through the Holy Spirit, we have already given Jesus the burdens of life throughout the day, in the evening we can shut the door on all the cares of the day.  Those cares are no longer there to distract us as we try to pray at night because they are in Jesus' hands, not ours.  Instead of focusing on our cares, we are free to focus on Our God.  We can worship Him, we can praise Him and we can soak in His love.  We can grow in our relationship with Him according to His good and perfect plan for our lives.

Let us learn to slam the door on the daily trials and distractions that life brings our way.  Let us claim the rewards that Our Father in heaven promises us for going to Him in secret.  Let us give all of our burdens to Jesus in the morning and thank Him and praise Him in the evening.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Holy Spirit to be the helper that we can call on to make our burdens light.  We rejoice in His presence with us throughout the day and night.  We pray for the wisdom and the grace to release our cares and concerns to Our Savior throughout the day.  With our burdens in Jesus mighty hands, we ask, Lord, that You teach us how to come to You without distraction in the evening.  May we learn to spend our private prayer time in the evening growing in our relationship with You and refreshing ourselves for the next day to be spent in the yoke of Our Savior.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who lightens our burdens, Jesus Christ.