The Heart of Prayer

I recently received this question submitted through the contact form:

”Just wondering, why did Daniel have to continue praying out in the open despite the edict. He could have continued to pray with the windows closed. Shouldn’t religion be a private thing where whatever we do is between us and God. Why does he need to go public?”

As always, when studying the Old Testament narratives, we are looking for principles that give light to the character of God and the plan for salvation and eternity. Remember, Daniel was a Jew and he worshiped God who at that time resided in the temple in Jerusalem. It only made sense to him that he should pray toward God, toward Jerusalem in order to properly identify with God. Today this is still a common practice in the middle east.

The interesting thing is that Jesus said, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6.6). So which is it?

What we can apply from the story of Daniel is that we should not allow persecution to change our practice of worship. Daniel was in the habit of praying in this way because it was what he thought would honor God most. So, to change this habit of worship would be to make man higher than God. He wished to honor God over man so he continued with the practice of prayer the way he always had.

What we apply from the Matt 6 account is that we should pray in private so that our motives for prayer are righteous. Jesus was addressing the hypocrites that would wander the streets shouting prayers to God to show how righteous they were, but in fact they were self righteous. In order to avoid self righteousness, we pray in private so that it is strictly between us and God. It’s pretty apparent from the account of Daniel that he did not struggle with this, so applied principally, rather than legalistically, it is not necessary to pray in private as long as it is strictly between you and God and in complete humility.

That being said, there is another aspect of worship to consider when we are talking about public versus private. That is found in Matthew 5, “…let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (v. 16). Others should see you praising God. Why? So “they may…praise your Father in heaven.” Certainly we are commanded to give a testimony of our faith and an account for Christ (the gospel message) when evangelizing, but this is a third and powerful way that we can evangelize as well.