“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” (Matt. 6:6)
I would ask you this, if indeed we are to keep every thought captive for Christ, (2 Cor. 10:5) if we are to pray without ceasing, (1 Thess. 5:17) and in everything we do we are to do for the glory of God, when are you not in your closet?
The general concept of the first verse in this short letter to you is to go to a place where you know for a fact that you will not be bothered by the outside world, there will be no interruptions, a place where your life in that moment revolves continuously around time with the Lord in prayer. Often the Lord would go off to a place alone to be in communion with the Father, not to set His mind at ease, not to “recharge” or seek special favors or instructions, but just to be with Him unhindered from anything else.
We are told to give in secret and our Father in heaven will reward us openly, (Matt. 6:4) the time that we offer to the Lord shows where our true desires lay, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:21) So we must conclude that if you are spending a lot of time in your closet then your heart lies with a desire to be with Christ, that where He is, is where you want to be. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Heb. 11:6)
I believe far too many people interpret this verse to mean that the lost soul who is seeking God, once he finds Him, has done what is necessary to fulfill this verse, yet Romans 3:11 would refute that notion, “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” David was told by the Lord, “When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.” (Psalm 27:8) perhaps not when he was young out in the fields watching his father’s flocks, but long after he had been called by the Lord.
Can we spend our lives in that closet in close communion with the Lord, can we continuously be in prayer, seeking the face of the Lord while living in the world? There is a reason to find that closet, there should be times in our lives where we want to ensure that nothing of this world will interrupt our time with Him, where no one will come between us and the Lord. They should be sought after times, they should be looked forward to, the world does not need to be a burden to us for us to search for those moments alone with Him.
Again, I believe that most who call Jesus Christ Lord seek for these special opportunities only when great troubles and tribulations afflict them, when they reach a point when there is no place left to turn but to the Lord for relief to their current adverse situation. Did the Lord go out into those isolated places to seek the will of the Father, to ask for help in times of trouble, to look for an answer to a specific problem or guidance is a specific area, or did He go to be alone with the Most High, to praise His name.
We are to ask for help in times of trouble, for if indeed you are serving the Lord, trouble will come, we are to seek for guidance in our lives, so that we may be sure that it is the will of God through the Holy Spirit that we are endeavoring to achieve for the glory of God. We are to pray without ceasing, to keep every thought captive for Christ, but we should want to be alone with Him, not for the sake of the burdens we may be carrying at any particular time, but simply because He is.
If you love someone deeply then that person is who you want to be with, alone together. The Lord waits for you each day to come to Him, to spend just a few minutes with Him, just you and Him. Don’t leave Him waiting.
