Many people experience difficulty
with their quiet time because their entire devotional life is based on public
prayer. In other words, they pray only
at church, at the dinner table, or in prayer meetings. Don’t get me wrong—there’s nothing wrong with
public prayer. In fact, author and
prayer teacher Daniel Henderson makes the case that more is said in the Bible
about public prayer than about private prayer.
Group prayer provides novices a way to learn prayer by listening to
others. It unites the hearts of
believers and centers them on a common purpose.
Corporate prayer creates loving relationships in the body of
Christ. It invokes God’s presence, for
God inhabits the praises of His people.[i] But if public prayer is the only exposure you
have to prayer, of course you’ll have difficulty imagining how a person might
spend an hour doing that!
In his book Contemplative Prayer,
Thomas Merton discusses the relationship between corporate and private prayer:
Though liturgical prayer is by its nature more “active,” it may at any
moment be illumined by contemplative grace.
And though private prayer may tend by its nature to greater personal
spontaneity, it may also be accidentally more arid and laborious than communal
worship, which is in any case particularly blessed by the presence of Christ in
the mystery of the worshipping community…
The opposition between “official public prayer” and “spontaneous personal
prayer” is largely a modern fiction. And
this is true whether “official” prayer is regarded as the “true” and
“contemplative” prayer, or whether these adjectives are chosen to dignify
personal devotion.[ii]
Merton’s stance is that public and private prayer are equal in nature,
though they are often very different in function and form. Public prayer focuses on the needs of the
praying community, and their shared relationship to God. While private prayer may still focus on the
needs of others, the primary relationship to God is that of the person praying. Public prayer tends to rely on eloquence in
order to inspire the group to join in agreement, while private prayer rests
rather on intimate expressions that might never be shown in a communal setting. While there certainly are occasions when a
public prayer might take on the tone of a private prayer, getting too personal
in public isn’t generally advisable.
Similarly, while there are times when you may want to speak out loud to
God in private prayer, addressing your Creator in private the same way you
would in a public meeting might feel stilted and artificial. These two types of prayer generally fall
under the category, “separate but equal.”
This blog is about your private
quiet time with Jesus, not about public prayer.
Indeed, public prayer is an essential part of the healthy Christian
life. This blog’s focus on private
devotion should by no means be understood as a statement against group
prayer—that is simply a subject for a different work. Henderson’s
book, Fresh Encounters: Experiencing Transformation
Through United Worship-Based Prayer, is an excellent resource for prayer
group leaders and pastors who want to explore corporate prayer more
deeply. Henderson
says that many Christians object to public prayer on the basis of Jesus’ warnings
against hypocritical and ostentatious spirituality In Matthew
6:5-6 (NIV), Jesus says:
“When you
pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth,
they have received their reward in full.
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.”
The problem with this objection is that Jesus himself frequently prayed
in public. He wasn’t telling people that
they should never pray in public, but instead intended them to make their
prayer life a sacred thing between them and God. Rather than putting on a show to impress
others, Jesus’ followers should focus solely on their Lord, who is both the
subject and object of their prayers.
When you pray in public, don’t do it to be seen by others. Do it to have an experience of the living
God.
When given the choice between public displays of faith that draw
attention to the worshipper, and private devotion where the worshipper can pour
his heart out before God in seclusion, Jesus clearly prefers the latter. He tells us to go to our room, close the
door, and pray. According to Henderson,
the King James Version’s rendering of “inner room” as “closet” is a most
unfortunate translation. It would have
worked in Shakespeare’s day, when the word meant a formal meeting place, but
today it conjures images of kneeling among shoes and hanging coats.
In his book, How to Live a Holy
Life, C.E. Orr writes about our need for the prayer closet. Go inside, and shut the door, he says. The problem is that…
Too many
people leave the door open. Prayer that
feeds the soul must be offered with the door shut…God is in secret. He is hidden from the world. The world does not see him, neither knows
him. You can never reach God in your
prayers unless you shut out the world.
Shutting the door means something more something more than closing the
door of your literal closet. Persons may
enter the literal closet and close the door, and yet have the world in their
hearts and thoughts. Such have not
closed the door in the true sense.
In the
public assembly you must enter your closet when you pray, and shut the door, or
your prayers will not avail with God.
You must talk from your heart to the heart of God. Those assembled may hear your words, but they
do not know the secret. The secret is
between your heart and the heart of God.
You scarcely hear your words. You
know and hear more of the speaking of heart.
There is a blessing in such praying; there is a joy that cannot be
told. Such prayer feeds the soul upon
the divine life and lifts us in realms of light and happiness. Thank God for the sweet privilege of secret
intercourse with him. O beloved, when
you pray, enter into your closet, and be sure to close the door.[iii]
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