Alone with God (Part 2)
In the first part I said that when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5: 17), many Christians interpret this verse by believing that he said that we must pray every minute of the day justifying that to pray only means talking to God but I have shown you that you cannot talk to God every minute of the day because we also need to talk to men and take care of other tasks of the day that require our attention for God’s glory.
It is like the verse in the letter to the Hebrews that says that we have to give a sacrifice of praise without ceasing by the confession of our lips (Hebrews 13: 15). What matters here is not the continuous confession of praise every minute of the day but it is the attitude of gratitude and spending some time during the day to enter into communion with the Lord to thank him.
The solitary place of Jesus to retire to prayer was a mountain called "Mount of Olives" and the bible says that going to this mountain became his custom (Luke 22: 39). He used to spend nights in prayer before meeting the people of God (Luke 21: 37). He spoke to God before speaking to men. We should also speak to God in the morning before speaking to men during the day. The living room of my house is my solitary place and here is my question for you: DO YOU HAVE A SOLITARY PLACE? If the answer is NO, then this message is for you because you need one.
The purpose of this teaching is to show you how God is very attracted and honored when his child put himself away from everything to spend time with Him. Speaking of prayer, Jesus said: “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” "(Matthew 6: 6)
Here Jesus did not speak of a room that should be locked but he wanted to talk about a private prayer in which we separate from anything that can distract us. If Jesus had said this in 2015, he would say this: when you enter in prayer, you must not only close the door of your room, but you must also turn off your mobile phone to be far from Facebook mails and Whatsapp, far from internet and television, away from your friends and your family and go entirely to God. Notice that Jesus said that the Father (God) sees what is done in secret! The word "secret" is translated from the Greek word "kryptos" meaning "private". The prayer in private is very powerful and effective. We should also avoid to brag about the time spent in prayer for anything private requires discretion.
I encourage married couples to have time to pray together but I highly recommended to have a special time alone with God even when you are married.
In the third part we will see by a biblical example the impact of spending time alone with God in everyday life.
Chris Ndikumana
