PART 1 - PRAY TO GOD
I expect you’ve heard the name Jesus by now. Many regard Jesus as a good man, or a good moral teacher. Even among those who hold Jesus in low regard, you don’t often find contempt for what He taught. Other religions often see Jesus as one of many prophets, or some expression or representation of their own understanding of God. I’ve never heard, from anyone, “There’s nothing good in Christ.” All I ask you, though, is to take a look—see if Jesus might have anything worthwhile to say about how to seek God. If Jesus knew anything at all on the subject, we might at least find a starting point.
“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to pray on the street corners so that they will be seen. Truly, they have their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” -Jesus
Jesus says that to begin to seek God, get alone. Really alone, behind a closed door—anywhere at all you can know you have privacy. Be there with God. It’s called praying, which is any attempted communication with God. If you’re reaching “out,” you’re praying.
But His first instruction here is: don’t be a hypocrite. So, why are you here seeking God? Has someone asked you to read this, hoping to sway you to God? Would your life be better if you could just agree with this person (or people)? Or are you living in a culture dominated already by Christian believers and you mostly just want to fit in, or get along, or do what you’re told—if you can? If so, Jesus is telling you that you should not, you must not seek God in this way. Seek God, and not the approval of other people. To say you are seeking God, when you’re actually trying to make other people easier to deal with, is to be a hypocrite. There is no reward (whatever Jesus means by reward) for that kind of “seeking”.
Pause a moment—are you here to truly seek God? One of the worst things you can do to yourself spiritually is to think more highly of yourself than is true. I imagine you’ve seen religious people who are quite convinced they are kind and loving, when they are nothing of the sort. To actually seek God means to get alone and be open with God; this is a thing that has to be done. But, suppose you were to continue on “seeking” without doing this? Those who live this way can easily be led to feel that (of course) they’ve already done the earlier steps—to believe they’ve mastered things they haven’t even attempted. This is how hypocrisy begins. Jesus once spoke of a particular type of hypocrite, a Pharisee, a religious VIP of the day:
“Two men went into the temple, a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee began praying to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, crooked, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.’ But the tax collector, unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven, was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other one; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” -Jesus
Do not be a Pharisee. Do not be a hypocrite. Do not think more highly of yourself than you ought. You know you don’t know God, or at least not as fully or rightly as you could or should. Get alone. Find the time. Make the time. Lift up your soul to God in secret. Your Father, who sees you there, will reward you. But God will be found, if at all, in the doing, not in reading about doing.