But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth
in secret shall reward thee openly. Mat 6:6
in secret shall reward thee openly. Mat 6:6
IN PRAYER there must be deliberateness, the secret place, the inner chamber, the fixed time, the shut door against distraction and intruders. In that secret place the Father is waiting for us. He is as certainly there as He is in Heaven, Be reverent, as Moses when he took the shoes from off his feet! Be trustful, because you are having an audience with One who is infinite sympathy and love! Be comforted, because there is no problem He cannot solve, no knot He cannot untie.
God knows even better than we do what we need and should ask for. He has gone over every item of our life, every trial, every temptation—the unknown and unexpected, the glints of sunshine on the path, and the clouds of weeping. He listens to our forecast and requests, and rejoices when they accord with His infinite foreknowledge; or He may give us something better and more appropriate to our case.
"He will recompense thee." If He does not remove the cup, He will send an angel to strengthen; if the thorn remains unremoved, He will give more grace. You may be sure that, in some way or other, your Heavenly Father is going to meet your particular need. It is as certain as though you heard Him say: "Go your way, your prayer is heard: I will undertake, trust Me, leave all in My hand." When you have once definitely put a matter into God's hands, leave it there. Do not repeat the committal, for that suggests that you have never made it. Your attitude thenceforward is to look into God's face, not to ask Him to remember, but to say: "Father, Thou knowest, understandest, carest. I know whom I have trusted, and am persuaded that Thou wilt not fail."
There is a prayer which is without ceasing; but surely that is not the reiterated request for the same thing, but the blessed interchange of happy fellowship. Use not vain repetitions, as do the heathen, who think that they will be heard for much speaking, but count Him faithful that promised. This reckoning of faith is probably the loftiest attribute of prayer, for faith is the quiet assurance of things not yet seen. (Our Daily Walk)
God knows even better than we do what we need and should ask for. He has gone over every item of our life, every trial, every temptation—the unknown and unexpected, the glints of sunshine on the path, and the clouds of weeping. He listens to our forecast and requests, and rejoices when they accord with His infinite foreknowledge; or He may give us something better and more appropriate to our case.
"He will recompense thee." If He does not remove the cup, He will send an angel to strengthen; if the thorn remains unremoved, He will give more grace. You may be sure that, in some way or other, your Heavenly Father is going to meet your particular need. It is as certain as though you heard Him say: "Go your way, your prayer is heard: I will undertake, trust Me, leave all in My hand." When you have once definitely put a matter into God's hands, leave it there. Do not repeat the committal, for that suggests that you have never made it. Your attitude thenceforward is to look into God's face, not to ask Him to remember, but to say: "Father, Thou knowest, understandest, carest. I know whom I have trusted, and am persuaded that Thou wilt not fail."
There is a prayer which is without ceasing; but surely that is not the reiterated request for the same thing, but the blessed interchange of happy fellowship. Use not vain repetitions, as do the heathen, who think that they will be heard for much speaking, but count Him faithful that promised. This reckoning of faith is probably the loftiest attribute of prayer, for faith is the quiet assurance of things not yet seen. (Our Daily Walk)
Our Lord a Pattern of Private Prayer
By the word "closet" our Savior is understood to convey an allusion to the room in the ancient Jewish dwelling which was set apart for the office of lonely prayer. Yet as_
"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage,"
for the soul, neither are they, nor any material boundaries answering to them, essential to make the soul’s closet of devotion. Even the Jew who lived in the dullest age of ceremony felt this. "The angel said unto me," writes Esdras, "Go into a field of flowers where no house is builded, and pray unto the Highest continually" (2Est_9:24). Abraham found a closet when, arched in the wavering twilight of the grove, "he called upon the name of the Lord." Jesus found a closet when, high up in the tranquil mountain air, the morning star found Him where the evening star left Him, "alone, yet not alone." A closet for the spirit is whatever helps to close the spirit in from all distraction, and thus makes it feel alone with God.
But the phrase "thy closet" conveys an additional meaning. It means more than mental seclusion in some unexpected place and time. "Thy closet" is the soul’s own fixed familiar place of resort for communion with God. It may be hill or hollow, chamber or secret wood-path, or the walk over the sheet of seaside sand—no matter, but it must be thine own. The Saviour assumes that each disciple has some such habitual retreat, the shrine of his most blessed recollections, the place where the soul feels most at home, enjoys its Sabbaths, its home of vision, and its walks with God. This is what He means by "thy closet." (C. Stanford, Family Treasury, July, 1861)
Our Lord’s example teaches us the great necessity of prayer. The mind of Christ is the mind of heaven, and none ever prayed like Christ. Does not this show most clearly that he who would be ever fit for heaven must begin by learning to delight in his prayers? Ought it not with reason to alarm those to whom prayer is a burden and weariness? It is not only that they lose the blessing they ask—that God will not hear them for that time: their loss is far greater than that; they are living and are like to die, without any practice of that temper which must be practiced if they would be happy in heaven.
Our Lord’s example teaches us the best way of praying, so that one’s prayers may be heard. If we knew it no other way, we might be sure from our blessed Lord’s pattern that God is never so well pleased with us as when we approach Him with the deepest reverence of heart. This, we may believe, was one reason of His withdrawing Himself—as we read that He did repeatedly—to places where He might be least interrupted, and where He might unreservedly pour out His Divine soul. This made Him fall down in so lowly postures, sometimes kneeling, sometimes lying prostrate. This breathed over all His prayers, of which there are several in the Gospels, that unspeakable mixture of majesty and humility, which no words can describe, but of which surely one effect ought to be to make every Christian man very fearful lest he be found drawing near the High and Holy One with any other than the most serious words and thoughts.
One part of this reverence will be, that men will pray to God regularly; not at random, and as it may happen, now performing and now omitting their devotions, just as they may chance to be minded for the time.
Next to regularity in times of prayer, a wise choice of a place to pray in is of no small consequence. "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet"—that is, have a set place for prayer.
(Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. i., p. 71)
Here is our Savior's own sanction and blessing vouchsafed to private prayer, in simple, clear, and most gracious words. It is necessary to insist upon the duty of observing private prayer at stated times, because amid the cares and hurry of life men are very apt to neglect it; and it is a much more important duty than is generally considered, even by those who perform it.
It brings religious subjects before the mind in regular course. Prayer through the day is indeed the characteristic of a Christian spirit, but we may be sure that in most cases those who do not pray at stated times in a more solemn and direct manner will never pray well at other times. Stated times of prayer put us in that posture in which we ought ever to be; they urge us forward in a heavenly direction, and then the stream carries us on.
Besides tending to produce in us lasting religious impressions, stated private prayer is also a more direct means of gaining from God an answer to our requests. We do not know how it is that prayer receives an answer from God at all. It is strange indeed that weak man should have strength to move God; but it is our privilege to know that we can do so. Now, at stated times, when we gather up our thoughts to pray, and draw out our petitions in an orderly and clear manner, the act of faith is likely to be stronger and more earnest; then we realize more perfectly the presence of that God whom we do not see, and Him on whom once all our sins were laid. Then this world is more out of sight, and we more simply appropriate those blessings which we have but to claim humbly, and they are really ours.
(J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. i., p. 244.)
"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage,"
for the soul, neither are they, nor any material boundaries answering to them, essential to make the soul’s closet of devotion. Even the Jew who lived in the dullest age of ceremony felt this. "The angel said unto me," writes Esdras, "Go into a field of flowers where no house is builded, and pray unto the Highest continually" (2Est_9:24). Abraham found a closet when, arched in the wavering twilight of the grove, "he called upon the name of the Lord." Jesus found a closet when, high up in the tranquil mountain air, the morning star found Him where the evening star left Him, "alone, yet not alone." A closet for the spirit is whatever helps to close the spirit in from all distraction, and thus makes it feel alone with God.
But the phrase "thy closet" conveys an additional meaning. It means more than mental seclusion in some unexpected place and time. "Thy closet" is the soul’s own fixed familiar place of resort for communion with God. It may be hill or hollow, chamber or secret wood-path, or the walk over the sheet of seaside sand—no matter, but it must be thine own. The Saviour assumes that each disciple has some such habitual retreat, the shrine of his most blessed recollections, the place where the soul feels most at home, enjoys its Sabbaths, its home of vision, and its walks with God. This is what He means by "thy closet." (C. Stanford, Family Treasury, July, 1861)
Our Lord’s example teaches us the great necessity of prayer. The mind of Christ is the mind of heaven, and none ever prayed like Christ. Does not this show most clearly that he who would be ever fit for heaven must begin by learning to delight in his prayers? Ought it not with reason to alarm those to whom prayer is a burden and weariness? It is not only that they lose the blessing they ask—that God will not hear them for that time: their loss is far greater than that; they are living and are like to die, without any practice of that temper which must be practiced if they would be happy in heaven.
Our Lord’s example teaches us the best way of praying, so that one’s prayers may be heard. If we knew it no other way, we might be sure from our blessed Lord’s pattern that God is never so well pleased with us as when we approach Him with the deepest reverence of heart. This, we may believe, was one reason of His withdrawing Himself—as we read that He did repeatedly—to places where He might be least interrupted, and where He might unreservedly pour out His Divine soul. This made Him fall down in so lowly postures, sometimes kneeling, sometimes lying prostrate. This breathed over all His prayers, of which there are several in the Gospels, that unspeakable mixture of majesty and humility, which no words can describe, but of which surely one effect ought to be to make every Christian man very fearful lest he be found drawing near the High and Holy One with any other than the most serious words and thoughts.
One part of this reverence will be, that men will pray to God regularly; not at random, and as it may happen, now performing and now omitting their devotions, just as they may chance to be minded for the time.
Next to regularity in times of prayer, a wise choice of a place to pray in is of no small consequence. "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet"—that is, have a set place for prayer.
(Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. i., p. 71)
Here is our Savior's own sanction and blessing vouchsafed to private prayer, in simple, clear, and most gracious words. It is necessary to insist upon the duty of observing private prayer at stated times, because amid the cares and hurry of life men are very apt to neglect it; and it is a much more important duty than is generally considered, even by those who perform it.
It brings religious subjects before the mind in regular course. Prayer through the day is indeed the characteristic of a Christian spirit, but we may be sure that in most cases those who do not pray at stated times in a more solemn and direct manner will never pray well at other times. Stated times of prayer put us in that posture in which we ought ever to be; they urge us forward in a heavenly direction, and then the stream carries us on.
Besides tending to produce in us lasting religious impressions, stated private prayer is also a more direct means of gaining from God an answer to our requests. We do not know how it is that prayer receives an answer from God at all. It is strange indeed that weak man should have strength to move God; but it is our privilege to know that we can do so. Now, at stated times, when we gather up our thoughts to pray, and draw out our petitions in an orderly and clear manner, the act of faith is likely to be stronger and more earnest; then we realize more perfectly the presence of that God whom we do not see, and Him on whom once all our sins were laid. Then this world is more out of sight, and we more simply appropriate those blessings which we have but to claim humbly, and they are really ours.
(J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. i., p. 244.)
