peace . love . joy

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.

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?

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.

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

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!

~ Adapted from Milton Hooper ~