Matthew 6:6
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Many are familiar with this instruction regarding prayer, and I was just thinking about it again. The neat thing about any verse of the Bible is how deep you can plumb the depths of it. As I was reading this verse I was wondering what the inner room was, the closet. Clearly the instruction is to pray in secret, so that your pride is not your reward (see Matt 6:5) and so that your pride doesn't interfere with your prayer.

The neat thing is the word used for closet, or inner room. It is "tamion" which means secret chamber, or more specifically "secret storehouse'. And it makes sense really, when you think about what we use closets for. Its that hidden place we throw all our stuff, and hope nobody opens.

In that sense, it is also a good place to go pray. When we close our eyes, and get ready to come into the presence of the onmiscient God, one of the first places we have to go is into our closet... where we keep all the stuff that we don't really want other people to find. We are not going to keep it hidden, so we might as well go there and deal with it right off.

Anybody can make their house look clean for visitors if they have enough closet space. I know lots of houses where the "sitting room" is not even allowed to be entered except in the company of special guests. It is kept tidy by being used as little as possible. That might be the place we would like to meet God, but we won't fool Him.

So when you pray, go into your closet - where you keep all your junk.. and meet God there, with all your stuff.

<><