Matthew 6:5-6
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 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.
I remember when I was a young child certain rules my dad had for the home. I'm sure you could reminisce about some of your house rules also. Well one of the top rules around the Abney home was to keep the door shut.
We lived in a small single-wide trailer when I was growing up. The air conditioning was a window unit in the living room right beside our television. March and April in Alabama would be the months that things would begin to get heated up. The temperature would rise and we would beg for the air conditioner to be turned on. My dad would fold his arms and say, "Not until June". (You think I'm kidding...I am not! I also must confess that when dad was a work sometimes the old unit just came on, haha) We would sit in that trailer and nearly burn up! By the time May got here I never came home until dark. I was soaking up as much air at a friends house as I could.
Then it would happen. First day of June! That thing would come on and a hum would roll through the house like a symphony. My brother would be hollering, "Thank you Lord!" Me, well let's just say it was good to be back home. Then came the next annual words from dad's mouth... "Shut the door!" "You either get inside and stay or go outside and play" he would say.
Thinking about those days, I came across this scripture this morning. Jesus tells us to go inside of our closets and shut the door. Do you realize that our prayers and prayer life is for us and God? It's not for others to hear and be impressed. Too many today think praying is what you do in church or before a game. No prayer is your alone time with God. A time when you should shut everything else down and be alone with God. Just like my dad used to say, "Shut the door, I'm not cooling the neighborhood. Get in or get out."... Our time with God should not be hindered by other things such as TV, phones or even people. We need to get in our prayer and shut the door!
