PRAYER CLOSET
How often do those of us that call ourselves “Christians” spend in our prayer closet? What is a prayer closet you ask? It’s not where you go into your dark, creepy closet with scary noises to close the door and pray but it paints a pretty good visual though. The concept makes sense because the idea is to separate yourself from all other distractions for a portion of time to be totally focused on God. We often toss up an occasional Hail Mary prayer while we’re on the go or quote the one Bible verse we know but God wants a more intimate relationship with us.
You say, “but God already knows everything about me”. He is omnipotent and omnipresent but He desires for you to willfully communicate with Him. Share your joys, your dreams, your hurts, your requests, your concerns, your confusion, your confessions…etc. Sharing with the Lord the desires of your heart is a Biblical concept but that doesn’t always mean you’ll get what you want. Don’t forget the… “according to His will” portion of scripture. He’s not a genie in a bottle but God does care about your desires. As a matter of fact, many of your desires are probably seeds planted by God anyways and they are just in a holding pattern before coming to fruition.
God ultimately desires for us to worship Him as our Creator. That can be done in many ways. Serving, communicating, studying, musically, lyrically, prayerfully and even in the ways you conduct your daily lives. We often think of worship as musical because there is such tremendous power in music. It’s hard to define but music is a unique instrument that crosses cultural barriers and reaches the hearts of man but can be quite edifying to God if focused on Him. If the focus is on Him musically and lyrically coupled with prayerful preparation, anointing and flow then the tone is set for the Holy Spirit to manifest Himself in the setting. Musical worship is often present when barriers get broken, when the Holy Spirit moves in the hearts of the people and when freedom is released in the hearts of believers.
When people are just going through the motions and singing songs of praise in a dry and passionless way, you can expect a less than impressive spiritual movement. When freedom coupled with preparation joins forces you can expect a move of God. Love songs are sang with passion for a reason… and that’s how we should sing to our God with relentless passion. Don’t get stuck going through the motions. Enter into your prayer closet often when you’re alone and don’t be afraid to enter in while participating in corporate worship as well. That’s what it’s designed for but all too often it become dry and barren because people are afraid or ashamed to show their supposed passion for Christ in public. Be sanctified/set apart and don’t just talk about your love for God...show it! You might be the reason someone else decides to inquire about the amazing God that we serve.