6 Tips For Your Prayer Time

Many Christians have heard of the “secret place,” but few understand its important enough to spend their time in it as often as they should.

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Matthew 6:7

The secret place refers to the place where you meet with God. It is the place that can significantly impact your life and the life of others.

The more I have spent alone time with God, the more I have realized the importance of these 6 things I’d like to share with you.

1. Have a Place

When Moses had divine encounters with God, it happened in a particular place. It didn’t happen in his bedroom where he slept, or in the kitchen where he ate. There was a place designated to meet with God. Moses would climb up the mountain to meet God. He would also set up a tent right outside the campsite, and eventually, a tabernacle was built where he would also connect with God.

Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp.

Exodus 33:7

You need a designated place that becomes your secret place. It can be a room, a closet, the basement, the park, a river, or a mountain where you isolate yourself to spend time with God.

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 

Matthew 6:7

The Bible says that Jesus would go to a desolate place to pray, somewhere outside of his norm and familiarity. He would go out early in the morning or late in the evening to places that were quiet and far away to spend time praying.

Your secret place can be anywhere because there is nothing wrong with praying in your room, a closet, or where you eat. But keep in mind that something happens when you go somewhere that is out of your norm.

Designate a place where you can go to meet God daily.

2. Make it Your New Norm

The New Living Translation states,

“It was Moses’ practice to take the Tent of Meeting and set it up some distance from the camp.”

Exodus 33:7

We can see here that this was not something that Moses did occasionally, it was a habit he had.

The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is their habits.

Everyone can be passionate or hyped up about something, but habits determine one’s character, lifestyle, and future.

Make entering the secret place a habit of yours. Choose a day and time to be in God’s presence in secret. If you plan to spend a couple of days with the Lord, do not go about it casually. Plan it out–when, where, and what you will do during your time with God. By doing so you are showing that you value your time spent with God.

Habits determine one’s character, lifestyle, and future, so make a habit of being in the secret place.

Do not be afraid of routine because holy habits are good. We should not make the secret place a religious task to be checked off, but rather a regular practice in our lives. Whatever we practice becomes permanent in our lives. It becomes a lifestyle. Make the secret place a permanent part of your lifestyle.

3. Make it Essential

Time in the secret place has to be important.

Then Moses said, “If you don’t personally go with us, don’t make us leave this place. How will anyone know that you look favorably on me—on me and on your people—if you don’t go with us? For your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all other people on the earth.”

Exodus 33:15-16

In this verse, we catch a glimpse of the heart and intention with which Moses sought the Lord. For Moses, being in the presence of God was more than just getting a revelation or more power. He wanted God’s presence to accompany him.

It’s being in God’s presence that separates us from the rest of the world.

God’s presence is not a luxury, it is a necessity.

We cannot live or function without His presence; we are not Christians without His presence. Moses understood this and he lived it.

There are many who live without spending time in the secret place because they have convinced themselves that they can live without experiencing the manifest presence of God.

If you do not understand the importance of experiencing His presence, you will never pay the price to make time to be with God.

Remember that God’s presence makes us distinct.

4. The Secret Place is for Knowing the Person of God

And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.”

Exodus 33:18

The purpose of spending time in the secret place is not to receive fresh power, a renewal of your purpose, solutions to the problems you face, or even to experience the warmth of His presence. Even though all of the previously mentioned will be affected by your time with God, none of these things should be the focus of our attention as we enter our meeting place with God.

The secret place is for God to show us His glory. Moses was saying that he wanted to know the person of God who had given him a purpose, power, and promises. God spoke to Moses as a friend, face to face. Moses lingered in God’s presence because he simply wanted to be with his Friend.

Think about Jesus and the fact that He often went into the desert to pray. He did not need more power, more wisdom, or more of the Spirit, Jesus simply loved His Father and wanted to spend time with Him.

Our hearts must yearn to know God and to want to know God.

Our cry should be “Lord, show me who you are.”

That should be the ultimate motivation for us to be in God’s presence. Knowing God should be our goal. He is not a means to an end, He is the end that everything else is a means to. God is our reward.

5. There Will Be Results

Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.

Exodus 34:29

Moses spent so much time with God that it reflected on his face.

If you genuinely go into the secret place and make it a habitual part of who you are, there will be evidence of your intimacy with God.

You cannot hide it, there will be fruit.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

John 15:4-5

Prayer and a relationship with God will naturally produce fruit, more than the right strategy, degrees, finances, or connections could ever give you. Time in the secret place with God will have supernatural results in whatever you are doing, according to God’s will.

6. It Will Draw Others to God

All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door.

Exodus 33:10

As you encounter God, you will draw others to worship Him. You will become like a magnet that attracts people, not to you, but to God. In Exodus, we see that people were drawn to worship God in their own tents, they were not drawn to Moses.

As you encounter God you will draw others, like a magnet, to God.

As Jesus spent time with His Father, the disciples were motivated to ask Jesus to teach them to pray because they wanted to have a relationship with God, as Jesus did.

Our goal is not to draw people to us. An authentic relationship with God causes those around you to want God.

Final Thoughts

God is inviting you into His presence.

Listen to what He is telling you. Perhaps, you feel a nudge to step out of your place of comfort. While for others, you may feel His invitation to step into deeper waters. Whatever you feel the Lord guiding you to do, heed His voice.

God is inviting you into a place of fellowship and communion with His Spirit.

Will you accept His invitation?