Uninterrupted

6/16/2020

Matthew 6:6 “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret.”

Why am I motivated to pray? Does my prayer life revolve around petition always, or am I seeking a deeper relationship with God? I have to admit that in my young Christian life, I did a lot of the “ask” kind of praying. It would always start with, “God please _____________.” Much of my prayer time concentrated on intercession as it does now, but it was not about growing in faith or seeking God’s will for my life. I was not reading the Bible faithfully at that time either. I was, however, very “churched”. I was involved in so many ministries and activities that I think I must have subconsciously believed I was growing closer to God through service. Nope, all I did was become part of the 10% worker-bee group. I was not a very good example to those I was trying to minister to. If there was a position that needed filled, my husband and I were always the ones to step up. This, of course, caused massive burnout. We were squeezing out what little we actually had, and we were not getting fed. We certainly were not looking for that spiritual nourishment ourselves. Although we did devotions in fits and starts, we were not consistent in any way. I think that at that time, we were counting on the church services to give us all we needed. Truly the underdeveloped walk of an immature Christian.

One piece of wisdom that my husband always imparted to the kids (mostly teens) that we were teaching was to, “Keep their eyes on God and not on man, because man will disappoint you, but God never will.” (Unfortunately, my husband learned this lesson the hard way long ago, by being terribly let down by his youth leaders.) Today I read a similar thought in Chambers’ writing, although his was built around the idea of not having a showy faith to impress others. Still, wise and valuable council. It is reflective of the verse above about praying in secret. This is not to hide the fact that we pray, but to not make a show of that time we spend with God where we come into the presence of our Heavenly Father. There is nothing more powerful to me than my quiet alone time with God, where I can just pour out my heart and be still and listen. Corporate prayer is also a needed and valuable part of worship, and a time we can learn about the needs of our church body. Then I can bring those needs back into my alone time with God and intercede for them as well. Chambers writes, “Get into an inner chamber in which to pray where no one knows you are praying, shut the door and talk to God in secret. Have no other motive than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to conduct your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer.” I guess I would say it was impossible for me to conduct my life as a disciple successfully without quiet time in worship. Prayer at absolutely any point is wonderful, but for me, the uninterrupted time I spend with God is the most precious time of all.