by Pastor Douglas Brauner

Prayerful Intimacy with God

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 
Matthew 6:6 English Standard Version

There’s a lot of power in doors, not in the doors themselves but in how we use them. An open door is often used as a metaphor for being approachable where a closed door can be symbolic of being closed off from people. An open door reveals what’s behind it, a closed door hides things.

Jesus calls us to hide our prayer life behind the closed door of our inner room. Prayer is not to be used as a symbol of our piety, of how great a Christian we are. It’s not that we shouldn’t pray with others. In fact, prayer is an important part of our community worship.

However, prayer is not meant to separate Christians into camps: the camp of those who are powerful pray-ers, and those who struggle to find the words to say.

But why pray behind closed doors? Prayer is intimacy with God. It is the moment we bear our soul, our hurts, our joys to God who understands. It’s the time that we air our dirty laundry with God, the stuff that no one needs to hear…ever.

God is good and in his goodness he desires that we we talk intimately with him. He speaks to us in his word and we speak to him with our words. This conversation with God isn’t about saying the right things in the right way. In his book, Prayer: Finding the Hearts True Home, Richard Foster writes, “We should feel perfectly free to complain to God, or argue with God, or yell at God.” That kind of conversation with God is best held behind closed doors.

So, what’s behind door #1? None of your business, but it is God’s.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado