“…close your door…” — Matthew 6:6
Dear reader, I am convinced that this is the greatest thing we could do in this moment.
It is time to shut the door on each every distraction and pursue one thing.
When addressing what the true motive of prayer should be in our lives, Jesus made this statement: “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.”
‘But you…’
‘…when you…’
It’s almost as if Jesus is expecting us to do this one thing.
It seems that Jesus’ words imply that we will in fact pray.
And prayer can be many different things to many different people.
Not only that, people can pray for a variety of reasons.
But in its purest form, I do believe prayer contains these three fundamental practices deep within its DNA.
Solitude… ‘go into your inner room.’
Seclusion… ‘close your door.’
Silence… ‘and pray to your Father who is in secret.’
It’s time to retreat, guys.
I cannot stress this enough.
To be honest, words fail me.
I wish I could adequately express what it is that I feel the Lord calling us into and the urgency that surrounds it.
All I can do is hope and pray that as you read these words, they pierce your heart in a way that causes them to come alive within you.
It’s time to cultivate our intimacy with the Holy Spirit.
It’s time to get to know Him.
It’s time to simply be still in His presence and to set our mind on Him.
Isn’t it fascinating that Jesus goes on to say that it’s not the amount or repetition of words used that causes us to be heard? (see Matthew 6:7).
It’s not so much about what we pray as it is about why we pray.
At large, Jesus is dealing with our motive in His commentary on this practice.
And a silent heart that simply longs to draw near is more loudly heard than the words of someone who is simply performing a religious duty.
It’s time to make Him our one goal… our sole desire.
It’s time to carry within our countenance the glory we behold in private.
One thing is for certain, and it is by far my favorite promise in all of scripture.
Jeremiah 29:13 declares that we will seek the Lord and find Him when we seek Him with all our heart.
Every time I read or consider that promise, it does something inside of me.
The reason why it’s so important for us to get alone with God and close the door is because the secret life is the most important life to the Father.
We will always carry publicly what we seek after privately.
It’s what He sees done in private that produces the reward.
And when we pray to Him in secret, we are rewarded with what it is we seek; namely, Himself (see Hebrews 11:6).
It was the Pharisees that used prayer in an effort to draw the attention of the people to themselves.
But when we choose to pray in secret and simply bring our inward longing to fellowship with the Lord before Him, we have His attention.
It’s through prayer that we get alone with Him and behold Him and when we do… He beholds us in return.
That’s relationship.
That’s intimacy.
And I am transformed by what it is that I gaze upon one way or another.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned for sure, it’s this: You will never receive what you don’t ask for. You’ll never find what you don’t seek. And you’ll never have opened what you don’t knock on.
Please, dear reader, put it all away.
Seek. Ask. Knock.
The world needs to behold in us the One we behold.
- Brian Connolly, Faith Like Birds Ministries
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