"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.
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think
they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for
your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
Matthew 6:5-8
Today’s
post continues a paraphrase of what John Ortberg has learned about prayer over
his 35+ years of ministry
It
has been said that the structure of every human being resembles, in a way, the
structure of the tabernacle.
There
is an outer court, where everyone is allowed. This is the area of my public
life, where people hear me, see me and watch me. Everybody sees my public image,
and many people evaluate it. Someone said to me this past weekend: "That
sermon was better than normal." (Do church attenders stay up all night
figuring out ambiguous compliments?)
Then
there is a Holy Place, where access is restricted. You have this too, a smaller
chamber where only those you admit are allowed. Prayer here with those close to
us will bring us life. I have a few "fully-disclosing friends" before
whom I have no secrets. With them I confess, and then pray both to receive
forgiveness and to be strengthened for the future. Inviting the right people
into the Holy Place may be the biggest predictor of whether your faith and joy
in Christ grows or diminishes.
But
then there is a most sacred place, very small and carefully guarded. This is the
Holy of Holies. There is room here for only one person and God.
You
too have one of these. It is unspeakably precious. It does not matter whether
you are young or old, whether your role is visible or unseen. If all is not well
in your Holy of Holies, no glory in the outer courts can sustain you. If your
life with God is joyful and whole there, no disturbance in the Outer Court can
destroy you.
Often
the mood in my Holy of Holies is dictated by how things are going in the Outer
Court. If many people are happy there, if this week went better than last, if
life seems to be going well right now, then I am grateful and happy in my core.
At least till next week.
But
for Jesus, life began in the Holy of Holies; alone, with his Father, and flowed
out from there.”
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