“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:6). Read: (Matthew 5:5—15).

Every book or blog on prayer has advice on the best time to pray, the most suitable place for prayer, and the best posture for prayer. Jesus advised that the best place to pray is the dark storeroom, with doors shut to make it even darker.

Continuing the sermon on the mount, Jesus criticised the piety of hypocrites for whom piety is for show. In classical Greek literature, hypocrites are stage actors; metaphorically, it means pretenders who act for the praise of others. A modern writer defined that we become hypocrites when we “hide ourselves from ourselves by believing that we are what others believe us to be, by becoming engulfed in their opinions about us.”

Jews had fixed times for daily prayer. A pious Jew who wants to keep the prayer times may find himself in a public space like a road or the marketplace during prayer time. So, being diligent to keep the prayer time, he may stand in the public space and pray.

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward” (Matthew 6:5).

For those pious Jews, prayer time is more important than the purpose of prayer. But Jesus taught that prayer is a personal business between God and the one who prays; it is not for public display.

The word used for “room” means a storeroom in a house or “closet” (KJV), which is usually dark and is not frequently visited. Jesus did not mean that we should look for the darkest nook of the house to pray, but he meant that we should pray not to get people’s attention but to focus on God.

This is the most rewarding prayer. Those who pray in public are rewarded by public applause, but the Lord rewards those who engage in a private, heart-to-heart engagement with him, away from the public gaze. There is no fixed time for prayer; when we are busy, the Lord will wait until we return to solitude for a quality conversation.