November 27th

The Closet Connection

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Matthew 6:6

Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?

You understand what I'm asking here, right? I mean, think about the difference between your steering wheel and your spare tire. Without your steering wheel, you're not going anywhere. But most of the time when you go somewhere, you don't even think about the spare tire that's hitchhiking in your trunk.

You're intimate with your steering wheel. You know exactly where you put your hands. You know the bumps on the back side of it. And if you have them, you know the buttons for radio, cruise control, or whatever else your buttons can do. But with your spare tire, you might be lucky if you even know how to get it on your car when you need it.

Your steering wheel directs your car everywhere you go. It turns left and the car turns left. It doesn't even matter whether your car is full or empty, whether you're towing something or not, your steering wheel always works to powerfully direct the entire vehicle and everything in it. But your spare tire? Well, you hope you never need to see it. It's your insurance policy. You only use it in emergencies and, as soon as you can, you get rid of it.

A prayer life like this takes time and work. It takes laying down our own agenda so that we can pick up God's agenda. It requires us to wholeheartedly pursue God's will for our lives, to desire His presence above the presence of friends or fancy grown-up toys. It takes praying until your list is gone and you simply pray for the pure point of being with Jesus, hearing His heart on things, and then praying for His list instead of yours.

Here's the incredible thing-when you really make this kind of prayer a habit, it changes you. I don't know if you've ever been around people who pray a lot, but you can tell. They pray with confidence and familiarity. When they pray, you can sense that you're in the presence of the Lord. You know that they don't just know the Lord, but the Lord knows them, and that He loves hearing them pray.

It really is amazing, but this is the life that is waiting for all of us, if we will just make prayer our steering wheel instead of our spare tire.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for giving me something as amazing as prayer. It just blows me away that I can talk to You! Please lead me, teach me how to pray so that it really changes me; teach me to make prayer my steering wheel.

Amen