Go Back to the Closet

It’s an old cliche, usually relegated to church bulletin boards and refrigerator magnets.  But the truth is still painfully real:  “Seven days without prayer makes one weak.” But if you think that’s bad, try seven weeks.  Or seven months.  Or… you guessed it, seven years.

Moreover, what’s true for individuals is also true for fellowships and churches.  Jesus addressed a group of spiritually-bankrupt church leaders with these blistering words:  “My Father’s house shall be called a house of prayer.  But you have made it a den of thieves.”  I want to suggest that when we cease to make the Father’s house a place of prayer, it will become a den of thieves by default.

Dens of thieves may appear to be spiritual.  In the Temple, animals were still being sacrificed, people were still tithing, and priests were still doing their priestly thing.  But something was missing on the inside. Somewhere over a period of time, they had ceased to be a praying people individually.  And it was only natural for that to carry over into the church house.

You can’t have a house of prayer without praying people.  Face it — we may be able to dress ourselves up for a week or two.  But over the long haul, your community, your congregation, your family will become corporately what you are in private.  Powerful spiritual communities are composed of powerfully-praying people.  Weak fellowships are composed of anemic prayer “warriors.”  If corporate community life goes on the slide, or worship services seem dull and routine, don’t blame a program or a personality.  Go back to the closet and ask God to rend the heavens!

I have been learning a principle recently that I’m still meditating on.  For some reason in our culture, we believe you can’t pray until everything feels right with God.  If we don’t have any past sins unconfessed, if we aren’t harboring any present sins, and if we feel pretty sure that we aren’t going to sin in the near or distant future, THEN we’ll think about praying.  The result:  We never pray.  After all, prayer is for people who have performed well, right?  Think again.

Next time you read through Psalms, go beyond the green pastures and still waters.  Find out what David said about his tough circumstances.  To God!  Find out what David wanted God to do with his enemies, and their children.  Find out how miserable the sons of Korah were because only good people seemed to suffer.  Oh, and read the Lord’s Prayer again.  Check out where the confession part is.

Go back to the closet.  Ready or not.  Worthy or not.  Tell God what you know.  Tell Him how you feel.  Tell Him what you need Him to do.  The choice is yours.  You can be like David, who repeatedly screwed up and kept going back to God, leaving us a legacy as God’s champion.  Or you can be like Saul, who compromised in his obedience, but never prayed again, that we know of.  The result?  A legacy of failure, insanity, and suicide.  Remember, there is never a bad time to pray.  Only bad results when we don’t.

Tagged as: Prayer