Your Prayer Closet
“…when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut thy door, pray to your Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly.” Matthew 6: 6
Do you make a place in your daily life for inward retirement and waiting upon God, that you may learn the full meaning of prayer and the joy of communion with Him? And do you live in daily dependence upon His help and guidance? Those are thought provoking questions.
Do you have such a retreat center where you meet along with God, a place where you report for duty and get re-supplied for life?
A secret to prayer is secret prayer. It is where you admit God into the inner courtyard there to be enthroned. Prayer is to life what a global positioning satellite (GPS) is to a traveler. It lets you know where you are and how to get to where you need to go.
In the vernacular of the Bible, “the closet” is private prayer. Usually a reference to secret sin. To the worldly-oriented person the vogue thing is to “come out of the closet.” The only way for the Christian to counter what is pouring out of the carnal closet is to enter into the prayer closet. The Greek word for closet is “tameion” which can be translated closet, inner room, storeroom, or simply room. Originally it was used as a storeroom in which valuables were locked. Prayer is thus depicted as being the treasure room it really is. It is actually a reference to any private quiet place. It is a good discipline to establish one so when you are there you know what you are there for.
Pointed, private prayer is one of the best ways for the Lord to prove Himself. When only the Lord and the person praying know what is being prayed, all human manipulation is prevented. Some people have improperly mastered the art of using prayer to indirectly appeal publically for persons to answer a request.
Such as, “I want you to pray with me about ….” Or, “I have been praying about ,,,,:
I heard a church staff member pray in a worship service: “God you know my wife needs new glasses, and we can’t afford them. Please provide a means of getting them.” He got several offers from members of the congregation, and in doing so robbed God of the joy of privately providing.
Alone with God a bond develops. Sir Isaac Newton said, “I can take my telescope and see millions of miles into space; but I can lay my telescope aside, get down on my knees in earnest prayer, and I can see more of heaven and get closer to God than I can when assisted by all the telescopes and material agencies of earth.” You can have the same view. Resolve right now while it is on your mind where are you going to provide such a place and set a time to be there alone with God.