prayer closet

Prayer Closets

Posted on by Betsy

How many of you have a quiet place in your house designated for being in God’s presence? Jesus suggests in our passage today that we have a special place in our homes where we can shut the door and shut out the world in order to pray. he was encouraging his followers to not be like the hypocrite Pharisees who make quite a show of public prayer. Instead, he invites us to the humble posture of private prayer in our place with God. How reassuring it is to hear that the Father is present in that secret place! 

Matthew 6:6 (Common English Bible)

5 “When you pray, don’t be like hypocrites. They love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners so that people will see them. I assure you, that’s the only reward they’ll get. 6 But when you pray, go to your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is present in that secret place. Your Father who sees what you do in secret will reward you.” 

I love this concept. I have a favorite place in my house to read, write, and pray. My place is a chair that belonged to my mother that faces corner windows that look over the harbor in Colington. I easily lose the worries of the world as I sit there gazing at the geese, ducks, water, and boats. Almost everything I have written over the last twelve years has been written in that spot. God is there for me, and we talk continuously throughout the day. So while mine isn’t actually a closet, it certainly works for me. To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t dare try to pray in any of my closets because they are way too messy! I would end up spending my time trying to organize the mess and trying on old clothes.

Thomas A Kempis, a medieval priest and the author of “The Imitation of Christ,” writes lovingly of his own prayer closet:

“You will find in your “closet of prayer” what you frequently lose when you are out in the world. The more you visit it, the more you will want to return. If you are faithful to your secret place, it will become your closest friend and bring you much comfort. The tears shed there bring cleansing.”

I hope this beautiful language encourages you to spend some time in a place where you can shut the door and shut out the world. Remember, God will meet you in that secret place.

My Secret Place

Called to Pray

Posted on by Betsy

A few years ago, I attended a prayer vigil for a missing child. After the pastor gave a homily, we were invited to form groups of ten people to pray. The pastor gave very explicit directions and said that if people felt uncomfortable praying aloud, they were welcome to remain silent. I was in a group of folks from different faith systems, including a man who described himself as an atheist. I was surprised that each person elected to pray when it was his or her turn. I think my favorite prayer came from the atheist. He simply said, “God, I don’t know what to say. But hear every else’s prayer.”

That might have been the best prayer of the night. 

Matthew 6:5-6 (Contemporary English Version)

5 When you pray, don’t be like those show-offs who love to stand up and pray in the meeting places and on the street corners. They do this just to look good. I can assure you that they already have their reward.

6 When you pray, go into a room alone and close the door. PRAY TO YOUR FATHER in private. He knows what is done in private, and he will reward you.

Our focus on prayer during this season of Lent brings us to this passage in Matthew. Jesus is warning against the hypocrisy of praying loudly for the sake of praying loudly. I think we can stretch this a bit and consider that it warns against all kinds of hypocrisy in the church. If our intentions grow beyond serving the Lord with humble gladness, we have lost our way. You and I have seen preachers who parade around the stage calling attention to themselves. We have sat beside the matriarch dripping in jewels who seeks to bar “others” from participation in the church. We have watched the soloist sing a song for the sake of performance and adulation, not worship. We’ve watched the fog machines that defined “contemporary worship” go in and out of style. Pretense is not worship. Pretense is not worthy of our Lord.

Prayer is a calling to “get naked” with God. This certainly is an activity that should be done in a room alone. God invites us to strip off all pretense of faux righteousness and come clean. I have a friend who invites God to do “heart surgery” on him when he prays, and the analogy is good. Lying under a hospital sheet and exposing our hearts to the great Physician’s scapel is a Lent-worthy endeavor.

As we continue to move through this Lenten journey, I challenge you to set aside all your facades and just be real with God. Ask him to reveal any unconfessed sin that remains hidden deep, and be willing to be searched and known by him. I promise you that God will hear this prayer and heal you of everything that stands between you and him.

Use this beautiful verse from Psalm 139 as you pray:

Psalm 139 (New Revised Standard Version)

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting!

Amen!

Hear Our Prayers, Oh Lord by Michelle Robertson

Lent Rules

Posted on by Betsy

Let’s talk about the Lectionary for a moment.

The Revised Common Lectionary is a prescribed set of scripture assignments in a three-year cycle. The purpose of the Lectionary is to provide preachers with a compass. Those who follow it will be sure to draw from a wide range of readings, as opposed to choosing what to preach on each week based on our own preferences. Trust me, we would all like to stay in the safe waters of the Gospel of John or the Psalms, but the Lectionary throws us into the deep depths of Amos and Revelation as well. Those are books a smart preacher avoids like the plague! So following the Lectionary ensures that the entire Bible gets preached.

A Lenten discipline that I am practicing for the second year now is to do these devotionals following the Lectionary. Usually when I sit down to write, God has presented a topic that has captured my attention and I find a scripture that speaks directly to the issue. During Lent, the scripture will find me instead, as I will be following the four prescribed weekly assignments for Year A. (Fridays will be writer’s choice!)

Yes, this is a harder approach. But Lent is designed to stretch us, challenge us, and allow God to teach us his wisdom into our secret hearts. So come along with me as we allow the Lectionary to drive this train!

Matthew 6 (The Message)

“Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.

2-4 “When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

Isn’t this an appropriate text for our first week in Lent? It lays out the rules: don’t make a performance out of being good. Don’t call attention to yourself when you are doing something for someone else. Don’t show your compassion only when someone is watching. Don’t focus on how you look when you are helping someone.

Be quiet. Be unobtrusive.

Pray with Simplicity

5 “And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

6 “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

This last verse nails Lent: go to your quiet and secluded place and JUST BE THERE as simply and honestly as you can manage, and shift your focus to God.

Ponder that as you move through your day. When and where can you quiet down your life so that you can sense God’s grace today? When and where can you enter into God’s presence and shift your focus to him?

Lent is calling. Go into your prayer closet and shut the door. Shut down your ego, shut the door on your need for attention, and especially shut out the clamor of the world around you…and simply BE.

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=23