I spent all day Saturday with my family cleaning out closets.
Now, let me just say that this is something that makes my skin crawl. We do
this about twice a year and each time it does not bring happy faces and warm
fuzzies to any of us, especially me. It was time to switch out the seasonal
clothes and also weed out all the clothes that these three growing children of
mine could no longer wear. Needless to say, we had several garbage bags filled
with clothes that were donated to others. Now, I do like the end result when we
are done. The clean and organized closets (for a few days anyway, lol) and
slight sigh of relief that we have completed the task are usually the two
things that I love the most.
This particular time, instead of just purging our closets,
my husband made one of my desires come true. He helped organize one closet for
Ben and Caleb to share and transformed the extra closet downstairs into my new
prayer closet. He is such a wonderful
man! He took extra steps to make a special place for me, or anyone else in my
family, to enter a place, free of distractions, and pray to our Holy God! You may be asking, “Is this necessary?” Well,
no. We have the privilege and honor to lift our praise and bring our requests
before Almighty God anywhere and everywhere and, believe me, I do. But this is
a place that has been on my heart for some time, a place especially devoted to
prayer with God, in private. Just my Savior and me!
In the Gospel of Matthew, just before Jesus taught his
disciples how to pray, he also gave them instruction about where and when to
pray. In Matthew 6:6, Jesus says,
“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.”
(ESV)
He was speaking here of the religious leaders who wanted to
be seen as “holy” and drew attention to themselves by praying on street corners
or in the synagogues. Now, there is a place for public prayer, but to pray to
be “noticed”, as they were doing, does
not indicate true prayer to our Holy God. When we pray in private, we are
bringing our request to our “Audience of One”. That is serious stuff!
Hallelujah! God has been prompting my
heart to get to more of a quiet place, free of distractions, that is devoted to
my prayer and worship of him.
Maybe you don’t have an extra closet or room to devote to
prayer. You don’t have to. But you can set aside a special place in your home
where you devote to prayer, away from the many distractions in your home. I love the true story of Susanna Wesley,
mother of nineteen children, two of whom you have probably heard of, John and
Charles Wesley. She had nineteen
children! Just saying that makes my heart start palpitating! Haha! You can
imagine in the late 1600s to 1700s, with a load of children in tow, that she
didn’t have much space or quietness for a room devoted to prayer, so she would
sit in her chair in the kitchen and pull her apron over her head to spend time
in prayer to her God. Her children knew that if her apron was over her head
that she was spending time with God and was not to be disturbed. Now that is a
woman who was teaching her children the importance of prayer!
I don’t think that we will have to go to that extreme of
putting an apron over our heads, but we sure can make a special place for a
time of prayer and praise to our God. I
ask you to join me in finding a special place in your home to devote to prayer
to God. Maybe a corner of a room, or a special chair free of distractions, or
even a room if you have one but just a special place to devote to God. I
believe when the people of God start devoting more time in prayer before
Almighty God, then we will begin to see mountains moved!
I want to close today with this same passage of Scripture
from the Message and I hope that somehow it ministers to you today. I would
love to hear from those of you who already have a special prayer closet or room
and how that time of prayer has changed your life. For those of you ready to
begin your own special prayer time, along with me, I would love to hear how God
begins to work through that time of prayer as well. God is working and moving
in mighty ways and I don’t want to miss a minute of it. I want to be in His
presence praising him, thanking him, and laying my requests at His feet! Sweet,
sweet fellowship with God!
“Here’s what I
want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to
role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage.
The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.”
Matthew 6:6 (The
Message)
This particular time, instead of just purging our closets,
my husband made one of my desires come true. He helped organize one closet for
Ben and Caleb to share and transformed the extra closet downstairs into my new
prayer closet. He is such a wonderful
man! He took extra steps to make a special place for me, or anyone else in my
family, to enter a place, free of distractions, and pray to our Holy God! You may be asking, “Is this necessary?” Well,
no. We have the privilege and honor to lift our praise and bring our requests
before Almighty God anywhere and everywhere and, believe me, I do. But this is
a place that has been on my heart for some time, a place especially devoted to
prayer with God, in private. Just my Savior and me!
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. (Ephesians 4:29 ESV)