5th reason to pray in private!

Here is a fifth reason for why we should get alone to pray each day for an extended period. It's a reason that really is convicting and motivating!

God Most Manifests Himself in Secret.

"Consider that God has usually let out himself most to his people when they have been in secret, when they have been alone at the throne of grace.

"Whilst Daniel was at private prayer [in Dan. 9], God, by the angel Gabriel, reveals to him the secret of his counsel, concerning the restoration of Jerusalem, and the duration thereof, even to the Messiah; and whilst Daniel was at private prayer, the Lord appears to him, and in an extraordinary way assures him that he was 'a man greatly beloved'....God loves to load the wings of private prayer with the sweetest, choicest, and chiefest blessings."

See also the examples of Cornelius (Acts 10:1-4), Peter (Acts 10:9-13), Paul (Acts 9:12), John (Rev. 1:9ff; 5:1-9).

"Private prayer is a golden key to unlock the mysteries of the Word to us. The knowledge of many choice and blessed truths is but the outcome of private prayer....Certainly that Christian or that minister that in private prayer lies most at the feet of Jesus Christ, he shall understand most of the mind of Christ in the gospel, and he shall have most of heaven and the things of his own peace brought down into his heart."

"[Martin] Luther professes, 'That he profited more in the knowledge of the Scripture by private prayer in a short space, than he did by study in a longer space.'"

"Wise men give their best, their choicest, and their richest gifts in secret; and so does Christ give to his the best of the best, when they are in a corner, when they are all alone. But as for such as cannot spare time to seek God in a closet, to serve him in secret, they sufficiently show that they have little fellowship or friendship with God, whom they so seldom come to."