Alone With God

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, 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 
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”                                                                                                                                                                                          Hebrews 11:6 

Why do we need time alone with God? God is present everywhere after all, isn’t He?

I have often used the scenario “How good could your marriage be, if you never spent time with your spouse?” This topic is quite simple, but at the same time very complex.

In the context of marriage, you meet someone you are attracted to. You ask that person out; or wait for that person to ask you out. If the first date goes well, you generally follow up with a second date. If things are still going well, more dates follow. Generally, after you both feel you might be life partner’s, you bring that person home to meet the family.

This time of “dating” or “courtship,” is to get to know the other person. You learn the color of their eyes, their favorite color, their favorite food, and so on. After marriage, you become intimate; you know this person in a way unlike any other. You know the most minute details about them.

To maintain a healthy marriage, you must continue to spend alone time with them. Most often, I hear this referred to as “date night.” This is a time without kids, without talk of work, without friends or family. It is a time of two, being one flesh. Marriages tend to unravel if this is not a priority. In today’s world, divorce is rampant. Even within the church, the divorce rate is over 50%. Money, pornography, adultery, and other things contribute to this rise in divorce, but let’s look at the core problem. Could it be that the kids, the job, family, friends, or something else comes between us? Could it be that when something else steals our time away from our spouse, other things can get a foothold?

Anything we put before our spouse can cause a rift that may lead to a broken marriage.

If this is true, we should seriously look at our relationship with God the same way. In the New Testament alone, “ADULTRY” plays a major role. Not sexual adultery, but “worship” adultery. In the books of the prophet’s, God continuously refers to Israel’s adultery; chasing other gods. The Israelites worshipped the gods of the surrounding nations. The Lord knew this was going to be a problem, so when the children of Israel first took over the land, God instructed them to kill every single person.

He knew if they didn’t, they would no doubt marry into these pagans, and idolatry would creep in and ruin their covenant relationship with Him. We see this is exactly what did happen, and even lead to the eventual fall of Jerusalem. Both the northern, and southern kingdoms were led into captivity. The temple was destroyed, the city burned, the walls torn down etc. Great was the destruction.

God is a jealous God. He will not tolerate an unfaithful people. “Isn’t that a bit hard” you might ask? Well, considering that He made you, cared for you, fed you, sheltered you, and even sent His perfect, Holy Son to die for you, I would say no.

So, we have established that God wants our devotion and worship. He wants to have a unique and personal relationship with us. He wants us to not only obey His commands, but He wants us to “KNOW” Him. So how do we get to know Him?

Simple; we spend time “ALONE” with Him.

We All Need Time Alone With Our Lord:

To talk to Him undistracted.

To pour out our heart

To listen for His voice

To dwell in His presence

To discover His perfect will

The following list include good examples of men who spent “ALONE” time with God.  

Adam: One on One with God in the garden. (Gen 2:7-17)

Moses: Spent time with God on the mountain. (Exodus 19:19-31:18)

David: In the pasture as a boy, and elsewhere as an adult. (I & II Samuel, I Chronicles)

Elijah: In the cave when he fled from Jezeebel. (I Kings 19:1-18)

Jonah: In the belly of the whale. (Jonah 1:17-2:1-10)

Daniel: at his window facing Jerusalem, while he was in Babylon. (Dan. 6:1-11)

This devotional was sent to me and I think it fits well here.

Praying in Secret  (author unknown)
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, 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 
What did our Lord mean when He said, “Enter into your closet to pray”? The word “closet” simply means a place where you can shut the door on the world and open the windows to heaven.
As you study the life of Jesus, you’ll discover that Jesus sought times to be alone. Sometimes He would go to a mountain top, sometimes into the wilderness, and sometimes into a garden. It is the secret place that is the sacred place.
  The mark of your prayer life is not really how well you pray in public but in private.
When you enter your closet to pray,

• spend some time in silence  
• clear your mind  
• listen for His Words of edification, encouragement, and exhortation.

One last note; I often use the word “minute” as a description, as I have done here. As

I thought about the word, I wondered how the dictionary defines it. When I think about God knows every “minute” detail about us, this really struck me.

 mi·nute

1.  very small: extremely small in size or scope 

2.  insignificant: so very small as not to matter 

3.  concerned with every detail: extremely or laboriously thorough and painstaking, and concerned with every detail 

Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

God wrote by hand for each one of us, our DNA.