Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Here the LORD speaks of prayer, and which is yet more express in reference to the LORD. Secret it must be between GOD and the soul, even in the public congregation, for what indeed is prayer but immediate communion, in which the only parties are JEHOVAH and his people. No lookers-on, no standers-by, can be supposed to interrupt the conference. But alas! how little understood by the great mass of what the world calls worshippers! Strictly and properly speaking, there can be no prayer, where there is no acquaintance. And until the Child of GOD is brought into an acquaintance with GOD in CHRIST, however he may offer a multitude of words, the heart is not interested, and consequently there is no prayer. But when we have received the spirit of adoption, and the new born child of GOD is brought forth into the spiritual life, instantly the cry of the soul is, Abba, Father! Reader! if the LORD the HOLY GHOST hath awakened your soul, regenerated your nature, and brought you into an heartfelt acquaintance with GOD in CHRIST, your own feelings, under divine teaching, will form the best comment on those precious words of JESUS; for you then know all that the LORD hath here said of secret communion with your Father. But otherwise, in secret or in public, you are a stranger to real prayer. Every graceless person is a prayerless person.