A Pause to Ponder God's Word
"Our Prayer Closet"

There is no debating that God's people are to be a praying people. In His Sermon on the Mount Jesus took it for granted that His followers pray by beginning some teaching about prayer with, "And when you pray." (Matthew 6:5-13) Prayer is the core activity of God's people. It is both profound and simple. It is many things yet one. Easy to understand and yet inexhaustible. Elton Trueblood insightfully noted that, "the school of prayer is one from which we never graduate." We pray and learn to pray all at the same time.

When I was a young child my parents taught me to fold my hands, close my eyes and bow my head whenever we prayed. In later years kneeling was sometimes included. Though I did not understanding it then, this was purposeful action. I folded my hands to be still before the Lord. I closed my eyes so that I would not be distracted. I bowed my head in humility before the Lord God. I knelt in submission. In a very concert way I was being trained to follow Jesus' Sermon of the Mount teaching on prayer - "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to Your Father..." (The KJV has "closet" for room)

The direct application of this teaching has to do with motive and pride in prayer. The hypocrite stands in public places and prays aloud to call attention to himself and his piety. He is not praying to God, he is praying for human acknowledgment. His prayers are self-righteous and egotistical. His reward is realized when people notice him and give him praise. God's people are not to pray with such a motive, purpose, or desired reward. Our prayers are motivated by love, compassion, and dependance upon God. Their desire is communion with God and His will being realized and accomplished. Though this is the main concern of this teaching, it is not the only lesson it gives. It also teaches about eliminating distractions to prayer.

Distractions are one the most harassing menaces to prayer. Helmut Thielicke powerful notes that, "the devil operates far less with doubts and evil thoughts than with harassing maneuvers of petty trivialities. He works through haste and restless thoughts, through crowded conditions which make it almost impossible to find a quite place." Spiritual, mental, physical, and responsibility distractions flood over us when we attempt to be quiet before the Lord. Discipline is an absolute must if we are to pray at all. This is why Jesus tells us to go into the closet and close the door. We are to get away from distractions. This may mean literally going into the private room or just folding your hands, closing your eyes, and bowing your head. Regardless of the place or position going into the prayer closet involves mental and physical discipline.

In 1 Peter 4:7 Scripture admonishes "be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray." What a marvelous definition of the prayer closet. Going into our room and closing the door is the divinely empowered discipline of refusing to succumb to distractions. It is the mental discipline of concentrating and the physical discipline of controlling ourselves (actions and desires) by the power of God's indwelling Spirit so that we are totally absorbed in conversation and communion with our Father. It is rousing ourselves out of the clutter and clamor fixing our attention upon God and the things of God. It is looking away from everything else and gazing upon Jesus alone. It is taking every thought captive bringing it into subjection to God's will. As we do this, it matters not whether we are alone or with a thousand people, praying aloud or silently, for we are in our room with the door closed praying to our Father.

Keep Close To Jesus
Pastor Gerry


A Pause To Ponder God's Word is written and distributed by Gerald Whetstone, Ordained Elder and teacher in the Church of the Nazarene. These devotionals may be transmitted, duplicated, used in part or in entirety without permission for nonprofit purposes only. Responses welcome. To Subscribe Click Here.
Return to Devotional Index