Jump Start # 580

Matthew 6:6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Jesus is revealing to the disciples how prayer works. It involves our heart reaching out to God. Prior to this, Jesus had warned the disciples not to pray like the Pharisees—praying loudly in very visible places so people would notice. Jesus was wanting the disciples to do just the opposite—go into a closet or inner room. There you won’t be noticed. There you won’t have any distractions. There you are alone with God. No one to brag to there. No one to show-off. Just you and God. And, that’s the way prayer ought to be.

Those “closet prayers” are generally the best. They become most personal, intimate, and specific. It is in those settings that a person can name his sins and what he is struggling with. He’s not telling God anything that God doesn’t know about already. It is in the closet that a person can name names—not in a negative way, but a positive way. Often our prayers in church services will include those who are struggling, but we don’t name names because that’s tacky and can do more harm than good. Maybe we should, but we generally don’t. In the closet you can.

Your closet doesn’t have to be a closet. It can be in a car ride on the way to work. It can be in a walk through the neighborhood. It can be sitting in a chair at home. It can be in an empty church building.

Jesus is reminding us that there are no secrets with God. You are never going to shock God. You are not going to say something in which God’s response would be, “Wow, I never knew that.” No. God sees in secret. This involves much more than the location of our prayers. It is about our hearts. We can be pretty good at wearing masks around one another. We can hide our feelings, even in a marriage, playing the game that all is fine, when it is not. I’m convinced that the prodigal thought for a long time about leaving. I expect he even practiced his departure speech. His heart was in the far county long before he took that first step out of the house. For a while, he was playing the devoted son, but it was a mask. God knows.

He knows how serious you are about Heaven. He knows. He knows what goes through our minds and hearts during worship. He knows what we think about other people. That’s where we are really good at wearing masks. We smile, exchange small chit-chat, but inside think, “I really can’t stand you.” God knows. God knew that the Pharisees were not really praying to Him, but instead, trying to show-off.

The closet experience Jesus describes reveals a greater concept that we ought to grasp. Hypocrisy only works with people, never with God. The word, “hypocrite” means to be an actor or pretender. It is done to fool others. The Pharisees were masters of this. They looked religious. They said all the right things and did all the right things, except, they didn’t mean it. God knew.

God knows what temptations you struggle with. He already knows. God knows what you need to do to get closer to Him. He knows what good you do. There is no need to tell others, God knows. He knows how tired, stressed or content you are. God knows.

Now, a natural thought from all of this would be, if God knows all these things about me, why pray and especially, why from the closet? The closet is where you take off the masks. The closet is where you get honest. The closet is you connect honestly with God. The closet prayers may be of more help to you than a month of church services, that’s not your ticket for staying home, you need to be there, but you can remove the clutter, distractions, and masks when you are alone with God. Just you and God.

What we learn from Scriptures is that even though God knows me so well, He still loves me. We tend to wear masks because we feel that if people knew the real me, they wouldn’t like me. That may be true of us, but not God. He knows and He still wants you. He still has a place for you. That’s what is so incredible. You don’t have to try to make yourself bigger or smaller than what you are. Just be you—honest, truthful and connecting.

Remember though, you are talking to God. Job learned this. He challenged God. God fired back a series of more than 60 questions that so overwhelmed Job that he realized that he had spoken out of turn. I’ve heard some say, “Shout at God. Get angry with God. Demand that God answer you.” Best be careful with that. God is not one of us. He doesn’t owe us an answer. The closet will help you. Reach out. The problem is generally us, not God. We don’t understand or we feel like things have been unfair to us. God knows how you feel. Go to the closet.

What follows our verse, is the Lord’s model of a prayer. Short. Specific. Reverent. Thankful. Dependent. Prayer doesn’t have to be long to be good. Prayer doesn’t have to name every thing in every prayer. Prayer is your heart reaching out to God.

Been in your closet for prayer lately? You might find this is what has been missing. God’s looking for you, meet Him in prayer.

Roger