Prayer is supposed to be a conversation with God. In the above Scripture, it is a conversation to spectators. The person is acting like they are talking to God, but they aren’t. Why would someone want to pray “to be seen by men”? It is motivated by a desire for praise, prestige, and popularity.

We can take pride in almost anything; we can even take pride in our humility. Acting humble and being humble are two different things. Praying is like that; we can pray so as to appear spiritual; or, we can pray to establish a relationship with God. Here we are back to rewards. Once again, getting is not an option. When we pray, we will get something. What Jesus is training us to get is a reward from our heavenly Father. How? Praying in secret.

Praying in secret doesn’t keep us from seeking prestige. Sometimes we even seek prestige from God. Long, fancy prayers don’t impress God. He isn’t going to reward us on the basis of the beauty or length of our prayer.

In a God-relationship we are coming to Him out of a desire to communicate back and forth with Him. We say something to Him and He blesses us with His answer. Sometimes it is a concept that He puts in our mind. Other times it is a miracle that He works in our life. The big issue, however, is how do we get God to give us what we ask for? Jesus is saying that the answer to our needs comes through private conversation with God and faith in God’s character.

Why does God answer our prayers? Because He loves us. His answer will be because of that love. If His answer is “no,” it will be because of that love. If the answer is “later,” it will be because of that love. If the answer is somewhat different than our request, it will still be because of He great love for us.

Our prayer didn’t “cause” God to bless us with the answer. Our prayer just opened the door for the answer and God did it because of His great love. This takes our eyes off of our prayer technique and puts them on our relationship with Him.