Secrecy has its twists and turns, some good and some not so good. It all depends on the motives behind the secret.
Jesus encouraged and practiced prayer by His example. Many were in seclusion, no one else around; the location could be on a mountain or in a garden. There His mind and heart were totally before God.
In privacy, you can confess the sins you do not want anyone else to know but God. You can express your doubts, fears, hurts, even your anger. All of these are expressions of our human nature, and God knows all about them.
Our Lord does not expect us to be perfect; life is a continual learning experience. We will never know it all. Maturity means we are still learning about our self and life. Our growing spirituality is one of constant improvement in thought and living. One’s spirituality develops better by spending time alone with the Creator, revealing our innermost heart.
Also, it is a time to be quiet and listen to God speaking to your heart. Those incoming Spirit-led thoughts demonstrate God is talking to you. They can appear when you are in your prayer closet; that is when I receive many of the subjects of my blog’s posts.
One of the things I have learned over the years is my memory does not work like it did in the past. Because of this human trait, I learned something different. I keep a pencil and writing pad within reach of my prayer place. When God gives me an errand or thought about what I need to do, I stop praying and write it down. Then, when the time is right, I can do whatever the Lord has spoken of to me. That may seem trivial to some, but it works for me.
Those who think this is petty, go ahead and assume that. I would dare say much of the Bible was a result of prayer, and all of it was God-directed (II Peter 1:21). An example would be the book of Revelation. John says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day…I am the Alpha and the Omega…write in a book…” (1:10,11).
My encouragement to all is to spend time in your secret place. The place where you know you can talk to God about anything. Jesus did! The next time you read the Gospels, make a note of the number of times Jesus prayed in secret. It was usually at night and some distance from everybody else. It was Jesus and His Father. Just the two of them.
Jesus gave us an example of secret prayer. It worked for Jesus, and it will work for us. We need to meet God in a private place to know the things He wants us to do. John said it best in 15:5 “Without Me you can do nothing.”
