“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” St. Matthew 6:6
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom com. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” St. Matthew 6:9-13
Where you pray, how you pray and who you pray to are all critically important, according to Jesus.
This is reflected in his very clear teachings on the subject as outlined in the gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 6, verse 6 and verse 9-13.
Yet despite his instructions in this regard it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible today to find anyone (especially inside the church) who prays this way – let alone teaches it. For example I know of no one who makes it a habit to pray to the Father in secret as Jesus commanded.
To make matters worse not only do most people refuse to pray in secret but they make the fundamental mistake of praying to Jesus rather than our Father as Jesus himself clearly instruct us – in no uncertain terms.
Why exactly they do this remains a mystery, but it seems that today the super majority of Christians today have decided that Jesus was somehow mistaken when he instructs us to pray to our Father. Which, of course is an impossibility. But there you have it.
I suppose another reason is that it is simply not in vogue today to pray to the Father.