Ian Barclay's Thought For The Day

A CHRISTIAN LOOKS AT MATTHEW’S GOSPEL
The riches of prayer
Reading: Matthew 6:1-8 Click to view passage

We will spend another day on these verses. I have always been fascinated by, “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father…”(v6). I used to argue, “I’m not a monk, I don’t want to go into an empty cell by myself.” Sometimes I used to make notes on the verses that were worrying me. I then discovered that the word “room” here is “tamion.” So I wrote that down too. A few days later I went to look after the English church in Corfu for the month. It was a bit of a rush and I forgot to get any local currency before I left. This meant that early on the first morning I was queuing in a Greek bank as soon as it opened. I fished a scrap of paper from my trouser pocket as I waited. “Tamion,” it said. What did Jesus mean? I looked up and at the head of every queue in the bank was the word “tamion.” So, in modern Greek “tamion” is “where the cashier sits.” In classical Greek it can mean “a treasure house.” That revolutionized my praying. I didn’t have to go into a dingy cell, I could go into God’s treasure house and see the riches I could take down for myself and my friends each day.

Meditation: When I pray I am going into a treasure house.
Prayer pointer: Show me the riches I can use and distribute today.



Matthew: 25A