A Real “Closet Case”
A Devotional
© 2001 Steve Lattier and Men’s Help Ministries

I finished last week fully realizing that I could in no way cover the ins and outs of prayer in one short devotion. The Bible has a tremendous amount to say about prayer. Prayer is awesome! How many of you work for someone other than yourselves, or did at one time. Now what were the steps that you had to go through to speak with your supervisor? What about the regional manager? Did you have much access to them? How about the owner or CEO of that company? Could you even rate an appointment with them? The God and creator of the universe is much more available than that. Did you ever think about it? You have access to your creator twenty four hours a day. Not only that but, He has time for you when you do come to him. You will never hear “I’m really busy right now, can you make this quick.” Or something like this when you are hurting “I have a meeting in 15 minutes, can you just give me the highlights.” God is there for you whenever you pray. It does not matter if it is in rush-hour traffic or two-thirty in the morning, He has a time slot waiting just for you and He will take how ever much time you need!

The Word:
Psalm 66:19 but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. [20] Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

Job 22:26 Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God. [27] You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.

Psalm 4:3 Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD will hear when I call to him.

Whenever we choose to pray to our God He will listen! There are many nuances to prayer. All of which are dependant on what is going on. For example the issue of lifting ones hands in prayer. Just as in worship the lifting of hands exemplifies surrender. When Paul wrote to Timothy telling him about it we have a bit of different context as well. This is corporate prayer, where people are gathered for a focused need or intercession. In this the symbolism speaks of a commonality amongst the believers, if their hands were raised in union then they were all honoring God as a group!

The Word:
1Timothy 2:8 I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.

Have you ever prayed for something that you didn’t need or wouldn’t even receive as a blessing from that prayer? What about praying for something that would probably have no effect on your own walk with God. Have you prayed for someone else’s walk with God? That is what I am referring to, intercessory prayer. Did you know that we are called to interceded regularly in our prayer life? God wants those that have a relationship with Him to intercede for those that do not. Start with your family, Christian. As a short testimony, my ministry and current walk with God are a direct result of the diligent intercessory prayer by my family for many long and painful years! Be faithful when you intercede. You may not see God’s hand at work for many years, remember just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it is not there! You can also intercede for someone’s health or things going on in their life as well. Look at this passage!

The Word:
Ezekiel 22:30 "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.

See there God was looking for an intercessor, someone who would go to the throne in prayer “on behalf of the land.” Have you prayed for your nation? Have you prayed for those people you work with? We ought to be more prayer oriented. It is a tough thing to do but a Christian will pray for those people that have done them wrong. Has someone stolen from you, have you suffered from a crime that someone else committed to you? Car accidents, theft, dirty schemes, rape, murder, the ones who commit atrocities to us need to be prayed for! Did you know whether or not they get to Heaven is more important than our hurts! Read these two verses.

The Word:
James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Matthew 5:44 But I tell you: Love your enemies* and pray for those who persecute you,

That is pretty strong medicine! It is easy to pray for friends and family. How do you go about praying for some one you don’t like? What about someone who has done something so horrible to you that it takes every ounce of strength to simply not hate? How could God ask us to pray for someone who makes our skin crawl at the sight of them? There are three main reasons that God wants that from us.

• The first is that their salvation is that important!
• The second is that our healing can only come from forgiveness of their sin, our ability to forgive is directly tied to our controlling that monster called hate.
• The third is that it becomes an awesome testimony to the power of the Holy Spirit and to the love of Christ when that person finds out that they are being prayed for.

Praying for your enemies will grow in you a certain type of Christian maturity and unleash in you more of that “Peace” that comes only from an indwelling of the Holy Spirit! What about simple needs or even wants? Are we supposed to pray for things that we want? The answer is a conditional yes. God is ready to pour out the blessings of Heaven on His followers BUT, did you hear that? But, those wants should in no way come between you and God. Wanting things is ok as long as you do not spend conscious time and effort, that is God’s, pining away for those things (…you shall not covet….). This is an issue that should cause a Christian to tread very carefully. I have heard some preachers preach the message that God wants all His children to be materially comfortable, not wanting for money or possessions. That may or may not be true I don’t know, I do know for a fact that most of us, in this fallen human state, are far from mature enough to properly use a gift like that. Greed is an easy road to travel for the less than mature Christian. Having things is wonderful, but the more things you have, the more things that can become an idol in your life. Cars, fishing boats, motorcycles, TVs, video games, big houses, having all this is not a sin, it is terrific to receive those kinds of blessings from God. Figure out a way to use them to glorify God and put them to use for the Kingdom. Remember where your treasure is supposed to be stored up Christian.

God has a plan for you in the manner in which you pray just as much as where you pray. Yes you read that right, where you pray! It is important to Him that you go to the correct place to be with Him.

The Word:
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 versions read “closet” instead of room.)

Why did Jesus tell the people to go into our rooms, or our closets? That sounds quite odd to me, doesn’t it to you? I wondered what was the difference. Wouldn’t it accomplish the same thing if Jesus had just said “go in your house.” The next sentence even seems to infer that all that is needed is privacy. Privacy is indeed needed but is far from the reason. Why the exactitude? It puzzled me greatly about the “closet” reference as in Jesus’ time they did not have closets full of clothes like we do now. Most people had one or two sets of clothes and that was all. What in the world could Jesus have meant by that? I looked up the original language that it was written in and found out the answers. Let me tell you our God is awesome. The word is “Tameion” and its meaning carries a lot of depth and explains what Jesus was speaking of. Tameion means a “storage chamber” a “secret room.” It comes from an older root word called “Tamias” which means a “dispenser.” Oh wow does that paint a picture for us! Jesus said for us to go not into our house, not into our bedroom but into our “storeroom” the “secret room” where blessings are “dispensed!” This has two meanings for us. One is physical and the other is spiritual. Our Tameion is a private place in the home, you will never touch Heaven with your prayers if your children are climbing on you! Tameion is a spiritual place. It is a quiet place where you can talk to God and you can hear Him when He talks back to you! Get into your closet and get with God! If your only option is your clothes closet then by all means get in there! But remember your Tameion is as much a spiritual place as a physical one!

Pray with me: Father I love you and thank you for all that you have done for me. I need your help Lord, I need to find my Tameion. Help me to get to that place where I can talk to you and you to me. I want to regularly go to that place where my needs are met blessings are dispensed. Father bless me with the discipline to have a regular prayer life. Give me the urge to pray for others needs and give me your strength to pray for those who have caused my tears. I ask all this in Jesus mighty name. Amen

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