"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."
(I found a room in a motorhome.) 🙏
✦ From Spurgeon to the Master
After two weeks with Spurgeon, Le opens the Gospel itself — Jesus teaching His disciples how to pray. Not a preacher about prayer, but the Lord of prayer. And the timing fits: October 8, Spurgeon called the prayer room a greenhouse for spiritual growth. Today Jesus shows us the greenhouse door — and tells us to shut it. 🙏
"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.
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.
And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."
✦ Two Mistakes, One Father
Jesus names two ways prayer goes wrong. The first is praying for an audience — on the street corner, to be seen. They get exactly what they wanted: people saw them. They have received their reward. Nothing more is coming.
The second is praying by volume — heaping up words as if God must be worn down. But Jesus says: your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
And the answer to both is the same word: Father. You don't perform for a Father. You don't haggle with a Father. You go in, shut the door, and talk to Him. September 15 — Le wrote: God answered my thought before it became a prayer. That is Matthew 6:8. He knew before she asked. 🙏
✦ A Room in a Motorhome
I found a room in a motorhome. Seven words with a smile in them — and a whole sermon. Jesus did not ask for a chapel, a cathedral, or a house with many rooms. He asked for a room with a door. And Le found one, on wheels.
No apartment now, no house yet — but the inner room was never about square meters. The prayer room travels. Le Faou, Beauvoir, Grandcamp-Maisy, Neufchâtel-en-Bray, Calais — the address changes every few days, but the Father who sees in secret is always on the other side of the door.
October 1 — the heart-house is finished, the brick-house is coming. Today the same truth in a smaller frame: the house is still being found, but the prayer room is already here. Spurgeon's greenhouse (October 8) fits in a motorhome.
October 4 — no effort of your own but to stay close to Him. The shut door is how we stay close. Not a show. Not a speech. Just the child and the Father who sees in secret. 🙏
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
✦ The Whole Fortnight in One Prayer
Read slowly, the Lord's Prayer holds everything this journal has walked through these past two weeks:
Our Father — adopted, not orphaned (October 9). Hallowed be your name — to Him be the glory forever (October 11).
Your kingdom come, your will be done — I will obey because I love You (October 2). Have all of me, gladly (October 8).
Give us this day our daily bread — manna every morning new (October 5). As thy days, so shall thy strength be.
Forgive us our debts — your sins, which are many, are forgiven (yesterday). The bills of accusation cancelled (September 28).
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil — watch and pray; the lion prowls (October 6 and 10). Guard the pearl.
Jesus gave us in five lines what Spurgeon spent two weeks unfolding. 🙏
"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
✦ The Only Line Jesus Explains
Of all the lines in the prayer, Jesus stops to explain only one: forgiveness. Not because forgiveness is earned by forgiving, but because a heart that has truly received mercy cannot keep it to itself.
Yesterday — the prodigal welcomed home, the robe and the ring. The one forgiven much has much to give. The pardon that flows in must flow out — or the channel is blocked. 🙏
"Go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret." (I found a room in a motorhome.)
Le · Calais · Matthew 6:6 · The prayer room travelsA Room in a Motorhome
Not for an audience, not by volume. Any room with a door will do — even on wheels. The Father who sees in secret is always there.
The Whole Prayer
Father, name, kingdom, will, bread, forgiveness, deliverance — two weeks of Spurgeon in five lines from Jesus.
The Forgiven Forgive
The only line Jesus explains. Mercy received must flow out — the one forgiven much has much to give.
The Master's lesson: After two weeks of Spurgeon, Le turns to Jesus Himself. Every good teacher points here eventually.
Le's room: I found a room in a motorhome. The pilgrim without a house is not a pilgrim without a prayer room. Jesus asked only for a shut door — and Le has one, wherever the road parks her.
A Father who already knows: Prayer is not informing God or persuading Him. It is being with Him. He knows what Le needs on the road — the next stop, the house, the strength for today — before she asks.
A prayer for the pilgrim: Daily bread — not a year's supply, today's. Perfect for a life on the road, one day and one stop at a time. 🙏