Christian Living

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I discovered something disturbing recently when I went into my prayer closet. When I entered my closet, I had to clean away a cobweb. Immediately I was confronted with a painful truth - I had not spent time in my prayer closet. This doesn’t mean that I haven’t prayed but I realized that I haven’t really spent quality time with the Lord. In other words, I haven’t worked much on our relationship. Needless to say, I repented of this and cleaned those cobwebs out.

Each of us needs a place where we can get away from the world and spend some time with the Lord. We ALL need this time. The problem is that we don’t fully recognize this until something brings our attention toward it. Prayer is an essential element in the life of every Christian. Without it we are only but a shell. We may look like a Christian on the outside but without prayer, we are hollow on the inside. In fact, the Bible tells us that there are some definite benefits to us for doing this. Matthew 6:6 states that when we go into our closet and meet with God in secret that He will reward us publicly. Now that doesn’t mean we will have a new car in the driveway or unexpected check in the mailbox but the secret to our strength is in that time we spend in the closet.

You will probably see a lot of cobwebs appearing during this month in your neighborhood as well as haunted houses using cobwebs as decoration. Cobwebs are usually an indication of something that has been dormant. It represents a place with no life or activity. Have our prayer closets become a place with no life or activity? Have we neglected our time with the Lord? Forget the old clichés that parents often use about spending quality time with their children. Jesus doesn’t just want quality time but he also wants quantity too. A 10-minute prayer isn’t going to do a whole lot when you could spend more time in prayer. If you disagree or say that you are too busy then how does this situation change for you if you suddenly get the news that a relative has been diagnosed with a terminal sickness? It’s amazing how we can adjust our priorities when we have a desperate need. Urgency tends to change our attitudes when it comes to prayer.

Honestly, I was upset with myself when I had to swat away the cobweb which had formed in my prayer closet. Several years ago I had literally created a prayer closet in a spare bedroom. This was the one place I had made which I had found to spend time with Christ but lately I had neglected it. I want to see things change in my life, my church and family yet my prayer closet revealed the ugly truth. I had all the ingredients to prayer yet I had not participated in the very act of praying effectively. James 5:16 tells us that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much but if there is no effectual fervent praying, what gives us the right to complain to God when we aren’t availing much? We can read all the books about prayer, write about prayer or listen to sermons about prayer but these are nothing unless we pray!

The failure to pray doesn’t always mean that we don’t want to pray or that we aren’t sincere about our intentions to pray. To be honest, we get lazy and easily allow distractions to pull us away from our time with God. It is amazing how many distractions the enemy can put in front of us to pull our attentions away from spending this time with God. We really have to make a conscious effort and be determined that we are going to pray. It isn’t always going to be easy or fun. I noticed that when I was aware about the cobweb in my closet, I made up my mind to pray but that didn’t stop the distractions. I needed to workout or I found something needed to be done around the house. There was always something that I needed to do other than to pray. I even found that writing this article was a distraction. Can you believe that? I’m writing an article about prayer and spending time with the Lord and even THIS became a distraction for me?

We want revival. We want to see God moving in our lives. If so, then where is the prayer? Are we actually praying?

A few days later, I went to the church to pray in our prayer room. I opened the door to the prayer room, walked inside and guess what hit me in the face? You got it….it was another cobweb! Enough of the cobwebs already! I get the message. We aren’t praying like we should. I’m not implying that people in my local church aren’t praying. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I do see evidence that we aren’t serious about prayer. We can go through the motions and create a nice, cozy room to pray. We can decorate the room and include books on prayer and a prayer request box. Unless we actually talk to God, it means nothing. Nothing! The prayer request box will only fill up with requests but no answers. The real sign that a church is not praying for the needs of the church is when none of the prayers in the prayer request box are being answered. We might as well not have a prayer request box because we are only embarrassing ourselves by making a show that we are praying.

If we are serious about change we won’t just sing songs that we are “hungry for God” or that we are “desperate without God.” Our actions will sing those songs from our hearts through the prayers we pray.

I have been more discouraged than anyone about prayer. That’s why I told you about the cobwebs in my own closet. I’m not perfect. I will admit to you that I get discouraged when I pray and see nothing happen. I am a results-oriented person. I want to see things happen. I’m tired of unchanged lives, continued family strife and the same old cycles of temptation and trials. I wonder sometimes if I’m ever going to get it right! I’m sure you’ve probably felt some of the same feelings as I do.

So where is the God of Elijah? If you remember, Elijah was frustrated by being outnumbered by Baal’s prophets yet when he prayed to God, God was there and instructed Elijah what to do. (1 King 18) When Elijah obeyed and when it came time for God to show up, Elijah prayed and God sent fire down from heaven to consume the sacrifice. When you read this chapter, it is evident that Elijah had a relationship with God, he obeyed God and he trusted God.

We might not duplicate what Elijah did when he prayed with fire coming down from heaven; however, if we want to see change in our lives we need to pray. You have to believe that your chances are better if you pray than if you do nothing. Things might not happen immediately but one thing will happen – YOU will change. When we earnestly pray, trust God and obey what He tells us to do, it is impossible for things in our life not to change.

Let’s clean out those cobwebs with the cries of our prayers to the same Lord God of Elijah!

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