Close the Door

Is the Son of God praying in me, or am I dictating to Him?….Prayer is not simply getting things from God, that is a most initial form of prayer; prayer is getting into perfect communion with God. If the Son of God is formed in us by regeneration, He will press forward in front of our common sense and change our attitude to the things about which we pray. –Oswald Chambers

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6 v 5-8)

We may never have witnessed street-corner praying. But we must still learn to close the door when we pray.

Prayer is to close out everything else and close ourselves in with God.

Closing the door is so important for you are shutting out your world outside.

Prayer is not always to stumble in carrying a weight of problems that you just need to get off your chest. “Prayer is getting into perfect communion with God” (Chambers)

When we go into someone’s home, we first wipe our feet, kick off the dirt and leave outside what we don’t want to bring into this home.

“Child, slow down, leave it all outside, you must be tired of all the trouble, close the door. Come enter in, come with me, I want to show you my love, I want to show you how much I care for you. Your worship is beautiful as it comes from a heart of sacrifice. I want to wash you. Come with me, stay awhile. I want to show you my power. I want to show you that I am stronger than anything you will ever have to face. Enjoy my peace, stay in my presence, gaze on my power.”

“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91:1-2)

“Now, child, what’s outside the door?”

As you look again at the problem, no matter how huge it is, you have just experienced the place of prayer with a closed door and it has filled you with confidence in God and because of that you begin to ask with confidence.

Do you ever find yourself struggling with your words with people? You have to be careful what you say realising that there are people listening who would delight in jumping on something you said or to misquote you etc.

Closing the door means confidentiality. We can tell Father anything, everything and in any order. It doesn’t have to be a well-crafted statement. At long last, there is a place where you can use clumsy words, it can just fall out of your mouth with no worry of offence being caused. We can tell Him how it really is, share our hurts, sorrows and joys. We can give Him our frustration, tears and anger. We can admit our weaknesses, failures and sin.

What a wonderful place this is.

Many get so near to this place. But because of preoccupation many have never entered in.

This is the locked down place. The closed door experience. It is the place of prayer.