More and more today, it seems our lives are filled with busyness and high visibility leaving us no private time or place where we can be alone with God. However, seeking the Lord is each adult Christians own personal responsibility. We must make time for our spiritual life in spite of everything else that beckons us.
On regular occasions, we need to evaluate our activities and take out the trash. Monitoring how we spend our time will give us a clear perspective of what our priorities really are. If we sincerely desire to have a relationship with God, we will see the benefits of doing so and will willingly take the necessary steps required to make time for Him.
God loves his children and He is happy when we receive his love and the efficacious benefits of the sacrifice Jesus made for us. Through Christ, we have received entrance into a living relationship with our Heavenly Father, but though Jesus has given us access to the Father we must avail ourselves of that privilege, it does not happen automatically.
The world is a public place, but the Sanctuary is private. There we leave the hustle and bustle of our daily lives and seek the presence of God. Jesus, our Mediator, has opened the way for us into the Holy of Holies where once only the High Priest of Israel could enter through the veil to offer sacrifices for the sins of the people. Now, through his precious blood, we can enter in to offer our worship and prayers to God.
When Christ died on the cross, the veil of the Temple was torn open, thus signifying that his death has unlocked the door for every believer to meet with God. Though the Holy of Holies is now available to all believers, it is still a private place for the individual seeker to meet alone with God.
During the late 80’s and early 90’s my family and I lived in Hong Kong and occasionally we would travel across the border into mainland Communist China. With over one billion people living there, I often wondered how the Chinese Christians could find a place for private prayer. Sometimes I would visit a house Church there in Guangzhou and, though the building was often crowded with people, they seemed to have no difficulty sitting quietly in prayer for hours. There, seated on the floor, the stairway, or the simple wooden benches in the open room, each would find a prayer closet behind his or her own closed eyelids.
Though living under the control of their hard-line atheistic government, they found peace in the privacy of their own minds and hearts. God met them there, and the soft smiles on their faces revealed the deep communion occurring within the quiet place of the soul. I was often reminded of the words of Psalm 91:
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”
For the Christian, prayer is the greatest of all privileges. To have personal communication with the Eternal Creator himself is a part of the inheritance of all who believe in Christ. Too often the new Christian may receive years of indoctrination, participate in church activities and Bible study, yet never have anyone teach them the practice of private prayer.
If the disciples knew anything about Jesus, they certainly saw that he believed in prayer. They often awoke to find him gone away to a solitary place to commune with God the Father. The only time we see Jesus in public prayer is at the tomb of Lazarus where John records the moment in his gospel:
“And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.” (John 11:41b-42)
St. Augustine once said, "Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon you."
Prayer has the element of fellowship and unity when two or more gather in agreement, but in the secret place one bares his or her soul before the all-knowing God seeking to know his will and to do it. Thy will be done! This is the byword of a transformed mind and heart yielded to the plan of its Creator.
We pray with confidence and enter into the Throne of Grace boldly, knowing that our freedom to do so was purchased by the very blood of Jesus Christ, God’s sacrificial Lamb. Nevertheless, we come on bended knees knowing that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. And is there a key to this closet door? Yes! We come in the name of Jesus, the name which is above every name. We pray to the Father in the Name of the Son and by the Power of the Holy Spirit.
Like all things wonderful, practice makes perfect. It is possible to attain a certain addiction for the quiet place but, like all habits, one must taste and see that the Lord is good. Private prayer is an opportunity to meditate upon the One whom we have come to worship. Unlike the meditation pursuits of eastern religions, we are not seeking peace within ourselves. We look to please the Father. When we please Him, we will know the peace of God that passes understanding. We do not come to bend his will to ours; we come to yield our will to his.
Too many seek to utilize prayer to promote a personal agenda, turning God into a good luck charm accessed by throwing a few spiffy phrases up into the air for God’s stamp of approval. When we come to the quiet place, it is best to listen more and talk less. He knows our needs even before we do.
Often, we go to seek God and instead find our own selves in the process. To see one’s self through the eyes of God brings great benefit and we must not be too proud or fearful to do so. God is on your side. If he demands change, it is for your profit not his, except that it may make you more useful for his purpose of ministry.