“Would you mind cleaning the closet?” Lynne asked. My mind is racing, trying to produce a viable excuse. No joy, so closet cleaning it was.

If your closet is like ours, it’s like opening Christmas presents. You find things you forgot you had, like jackets you hadn’t worn since moving to Texas from the frozen North.

You don’t hear much about the closet anymore. People were always “coming out” of the closet and making a big deal out of it. Apparently, it was a phase because no one is coming out anymore.

I’d like to make a case for going back into the closet. It’s not my idea — Jesus said it first: “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet [‘room,’ ESV], and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:6, KJV).

Jesus had just told His disciples not to be like the Pharisees, whom He said hypocritically prayed to be seen by men. We, however, are to enter our closet to pray (okay, not a literal closet, although that might be an option). We miss the point of what Jesus is saying here. It’s not just about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees as much as it is about having a private prayer life that results in God responding.

I’ve heard it said that when we get to Heaven our only regret will be not having prayed enough. In our small group meetings, one of our guidelines is that we use “I” statements, so let me use one here: I don’t pray enough. James tells us: “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:2-3, ESV).

It appears that there are some conditions to be applied to this prayer thing. First, if you don’t pray, nothing happens, so asking is the first thing. “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24, ESV).

Second, we ask in Jesus’s name. The context of Jesus’s command to ask in His name is His Upper Room discourse before going to Gethsemane. Because He was returning to the Father, we, His disciples, are to ask the Father in Jesus’s name. That’s the authority He has given us. Why? Because we believe that He is the Son of God. “In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (John 16:26-27, ESV). That, my friend, is Kingdom authority!

Third, we need to be asking according to God’s will. “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15, ESV). I don’t want to diminish the idea of praying for our temporal needs, but God wants us to go much deeper in our prayer life. Jesus told His disciples that they would do “greater works” (John 14:12) than He did, and they went on to do exactly that. God desires that all men (and women) be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). “[Jesus] said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest’” (Matthew 9:37-38, ESV). Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10, ESV). I quite frequently forget to ask for those things.

So, what have I learned from this? I need to go into my closet (place of prayer) and ask my Father in secret so that He will answer openly. I need to ask in Jesus’s name. I need to exercise the authority He gave at the cost of His life. Lastly, I need to pray for those things that I know are in the Father’s will. If I’m not sure I am in His will, then I need to pray for wisdom. Praying like this will cause God to respond.

“Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.” —Luke 12:3 (KJV)

Prayers asked in the darkness of our closet (out of the sight of others) will be heard “in the light” where God dwells. Looking around, I think it’s time to get serious about praying.

What say ye, Man of Valor?