THE BELOW BLOG IS THE FIRST BLOG FROM SMITTY'S BASSIST, MATT SMALLBONE - he will be a regular blogger on the site moving forward:

I was reading through Matthew 6 the other day and I was reminded of something so simple, yet life transforming about prayer that I had to commit it to paper.

Check it. Matthew 6: 5-6. (You can find it about 60% of the way into the Bible). This section of the Bible comes during Jesus’ longest recorded sermon.

Shortly after Jesus talks about charitable giving (and doing so anonymously), he moves right onto the topic of prayer.

He says:

When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that this is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets will reward you. (Life Application Study Bible)

He starts with a warning (don’t be a poser with your prayer) and then gets straight to his first main point on ‘How to pray’.

Surprisingly, His first teaching is regarding the LOCATION of the prayer. Not the choice of words (he even goes so far to state that God knows all of our secrets/needs anyway) or the hour of the day, or whether I sit stand or kneel, or how I clasp my fingers.

LOCATION!

How about that?!

If you feel like God is distant right now, perhaps the first thing that you need to do is to go to your room, close the door, and pray. It’s what the greatest pray-er the world has known told us to do.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. It’s incredible that closing a door is such a massive key to our relationship with God, but hey, if that’s what it takes… I’m all in.

To read all of Matt's blogs you can click here to go to his website.