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
Christ greatly desired that His disciples would know God as their Father, and that they would have secret fellowship with Him. In His own life, He found it not only indispensable, but also the highest happiness to meet the Father in secret. He wants us to realize that it is impossible to be true, wholehearted disciples without daily fellowship with the Father in heaven, who waits for us “in secret.”
God is a God who hides Himself from the world and all that is of the world. He wants to draw us away from the world and from ourselves. Instead, He offers us the blessedness of close, intimate communion with Himself. Oh, that God’s children would understand this!
Believers enjoyed this experience in Old Testament times: “You are my hiding place” (Psalm 32:7); “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1); “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him” (Psalm 25:14). How much more Christians in the new covenant ought to value this secret fellowship with God! We read: “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). If we believe this, we will have the joyful assurance that our lives, hidden “with Christ in God,” are safe and beyond the reach of every enemy. We should confidently and daily seek the renewal of our spiritual lives in prayer to our Father who is “in secret.”
Because we are dead with Christ, because we are one with Him in the likeness of His death and of His resurrection, we know that, as the roots of a tree are hidden under the earth, so the roots of our daily lives are hidden deep in God.
O soul, take time to realize: “Thou shalt hide [me] in the secret of Thy presence” (Psalm 31:20).
Our first thought in prayer should be, “I must know that I am alone with God, and that God is with me.”
“In the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me” (Psalm 27:5).