Meeting With God预览

 The Power of the Secret Closet

Do you have a closet of prayer? I don't mean an actual clothes closet (though that could do), but rather do you have a habit of shutting yourself in with God? 

To have a “secret closet” means simply to be shut in with God anywhere, anytime—giving quality chosen time to yearn after him, seek him, and call on his name. 

“Prayer closet” means “prayer habit.” Do you have a daily practice of getting alone with God? This is what the prayer closet is all about: practice. It is about disciplining yourself to come before God, to answer when the Spirit’s wooing calls you. It means having a heart that says, “I must get alone with God; I must talk with my Father today!” 

Don't be deceived: It takes concentrated effort to pray! When you go into your secret closet, shut the door and turn off the phone. Any child of God who sets his heart to seek the Father is going to face what I call "satanic interruptions.” The devil will come to interrupt you, to get your mind onto anything except your heavenly Father. 

Jesus clearly said, “When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father, who is in the secret place” (Matthew 6:6). In other words, when you go into your closet, don't start praying until you shut the door.

This means don't talk to your Father with a cluttered mind. Shut out all the thoughts that keep you drifting away from him. Be awake, focused, not wasting words, not thinking of something else. You can let your mind wander when you talk with friends or when you're on the job or in school. But when you come into the presence of the King, the Bible says, “He sees in secret!” 

Many people pray for long hours, yet they are powerless in their daily walk. They wonder why answers do not come, why they don't have victory. It is because they pray with their closet door wide open! They leave open the door of distractions, and God does not answer halfhearted, insincere prayers. 

Do you go into the secret closet and pray haphazardly for hours, scatter-gun –style, never directing focused prayers, never hitting the target of God’s ear because you don't know what you want or need? 

Beloved, this discipline is absolutely imperative. If we are to meet with God and be heard by him, we have to be where he is: in secret! “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6). God has invited you to come boldly to his throne of grace and it is behind closed doors!