Christian Living
Shut That Door!
Have you ever been up at 4 in the morning, for no reason at all? This particular time of the morning is special to me. There are no birds singing,no bugs buzzing. The sun isn't up yet. There are no smells in the house of breakfast cooking. Everyone else in the house is sound asleep. The quietness of this time is comforting to me. I suppose it is because I often feel closer to God during this time.
There are no interruptions at this time. No one needs anything from me. It's just me, my Bible and the thoughts the Spirit moves through my mind.
There have been a couple of things on my mind lately. Prayer has been the foremost.
Prayer is our ultimate communication with God. It is so important that Jesus addressed the subject of prayer and Matthew recorded it. It was then included in the Bible. I believe the Bible is divinely inspired by God the Father to help teach us his ways. Learning to pray was important to him. God wants us to talk to him.
I feel close to God in Matthew chapter 6. Some of the most important lessons we are to learn are given there
Jesus teaches us two things. The first is how we are to care for others. The second is how we are to care for ourselves in approaching Prayer. As I re-read Matthew Chapter 6, I realized that to God everyone is special. God knows everything there is to know about us. He knows what is going on in the present and what will happen in the future. Still God wants to hear from us.
I have heard people use the term "CLOSET PRAYER" or " GO TO THE PRAYER CLOSET." That term was confusing to me. I know in my heart that God hears us and sees us wherever we are, so why in Matthew 6:6 are we told to go into a place alone to pray to God?
Jesus talked about the hypocrites and their showing off in their elegant speech while saying long prayers to God. God reveals to us in this passage these prayers were only for show. The prayers weren't honest,or from the heart and God saw through these prayers to the person who only wanted to impress the people around them.
How sad this is, because are we not taught to not be in judgment of others? Yet these people were trying to draw attention to themselves, so as to become judged by others as holy. Yet they didn't seem to care if God heard them or how he felt about the prayers.
The important aspect I have come to realize about Matthew 6:6 is what I will refer to as " THE CLOSET PRAYER" is that there is only you and God in there. No one even has to know you're in there. You don't have to shout, because God knows the very whispers of your heart. God also knows that man will always be judgmental of each other, so we never really fully address what is burdening our soul, when we are in the company of others.
Be honest with yourself now! Inside you is something that you feel you must keep to yourself or someone might think less of you. I've heard people claim they don't care what people think of them; yet they strive to dress the style, have the things others have or impress others in someway.
Now I don't want you to think I am condemning you, or passing judgment on you, because I'm not! I just described one of my own biggest down falls. I want to fit in with society. I want to be thought of as "normal."
When God-Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:6
to go into your room to pray, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
He has given us permission to be ourselves with him. Open, real, no fronts, just the real you! God knows our hearts, but he wants us to reach out to him, holding nothing back.
Giving Him our full attention, love, respect, desires, needs and most of all our thanks and praises.
God loves us for who we are, not what we think others want us to be. I still have troubles in my life. There will always be a certain amount of pain, suffering, temptations and just plain wants and desires in my life. I am just as human as the next person.
God wants me to acknowledge that and go into that closet, shut the door and give him the real me, with nothing held back. We can't hide from God, anything or anyplace. What we do is hide the admission of our down falls so we don't have to face them or admit they are there. If we hide in ourselves, that spec which we don't even want to admit to ourselves is there, we are leaving a hole in our faith that Satan can squeeze through and believe me Satan will use it.
SO SHUT THAT DOOR!
It's only between you and God and believe me, God wants to hear from you!
Note: Matthew 6:6 was as appears written in the NIV bible translation.
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