"Having shut the door -Pray"

cavell · #1 20th October 2009, 08:13 AM

When thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut the door, pray - Matthew 6: 6

I would not have anyone bound by rules concerning the time for being alone with God. But have a time - times if you will, but at least a time. I am sure we agree that there is no time like the morning hours for prayer!..........

However, have some hour out of the twenty-four; perhaps not the whole hour. Remember that God can do a wonderful amount of work in five minutes, if you can spare no more time; but He can do nothing in five minutes if you ought to give Him sixty. All that is for you yourself to decide with Him. But have a place, an 'inner chamber', a time set apart, and a method.

Find the method of prayer which helps you most, whether it be that of speaking aloud in your lonliness, or allowing your heart to be still so that you hardly speak at all. Standing, sitting, kneeling - no one method is insisted upon in the scripture.....Only cultivate this habit of lonely prayer.

Habit did I say? Yes dear young brother or sister, do not forget that the habit of the Christian Life must be formed, just as much as the habit of evil is formed; and the thing which at first, perhaps, is trying and difficult, presently becomes second nature, until you find, presently, that you can no more live without that place and time, and method of dealing with God every day, than you could live without that breathing which is the sustenance of your physical life.

But in all these matters, where the place is, whatever the hour may be, the essential thing is time, alone, in absolute seclusion for prayer.

Catherineanne · #2 20th October 2009, 08:19 AM

Originally Posted by cavell

When thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut the door, pray - Matthew 6: 6

I would not have anyone bound by rules concerning the time for being alone with God. But have a time - times if you will, but at least a time. I am sure we agree that there is no time like the morning hours for prayer!..........

I think you are making something very simple into hard work.

You talk about breathing in relation to Christian life. Breathing is not a habit, it is an instinct. As with breathing, there is only one good time to pray; now, and as with breathing, there is never a good time to not pray, so once you start, keep going.

Pray behind a closed door by all means, but also in the street, at work, cooking dinner; at all times and in all places. If you do all of this out loud, then your reward will come from man. If you do it in secret, so that only God knows, then your reward will come from God.

Simple.

Scruff512 · #3 2nd November 2009, 05:15 AM

Originally Posted by Catherineanne

Pray behind a closed door by all means, but also in the street, at work, cooking dinner; at all times and in all places. If you do all of this out loud, then your reward will come from man. If you do it in secret, so that only God knows, then your reward will come from God.

Simple.

AMEN.