Confessions of an Abandoned Prayer Closet

N. Hunter Strength

Beacon Youth

23 Oct 2022

Confessions of an Abandoned Prayer Closet

When I was growing up, my grandpa would often take me to our hunting club . And sometimes we would take a way to the property that let us pass by these big cattle fields and there has always been one property in particular that always makes me think, “I wonder what happened to the people?” You see, whenever I see an old abandoned house I can’t help but think of the children that grew up there, the meals that might have been enjoyed, and the laughter that they might have had together. There is one poem that captures that well, it reads:

Empty houses gone to seed

empty kitchens with no one to feed

where once was laughter, spiders spin

forgotten dreams ... an off key song

no cat in the window... everyone's gone

where sheets once danced on a line

the tire swing replaced by poison vine

wildflowers where the roses grew

where is the family that loved and knew

where sunlight painted a bright design

floors once swept now warped with time

the slap of a screen door, the shout of a child

little secrets and presents piled

but daffodils still bloom in spring

robins, wrens, and bluebirds sing

do ghosts knit sweaters or answer the phone

do ghosts light candles when they are alone

abandoned houses, forgotten lives

the house sits empty, nobody's home.

Even though walls can’t speak, I always wonder what kind of story those old houses would tell us if they could talk. And with this in mind, I want us to consider a place that we might have abandoned, a place that might not be a physical place, but a place that we need to visit often, that place is our prayer closet. If you were to take a tour through the home of your soul, would this be a cold, dark and uncomfortable room with cobwebs? Or would it be a vibrant, warm, and welcoming place of fellowship? That’s what I want us to think about today as we look at 1 Thessalonians 5:17 which says, “Pray without ceasing.”

How many times have you had someone tell you one thing, but show you that they didn’t mean it by doing something completely different? Well, just like those houses with the old walls with marks on them from parents measuring their children growing through the years, there is also a story to be told by the abandoned prayer closet, so, I want us to look at a lesson titled, “Confessions of an Abandoned Prayer Closet.” Where even though we wouldn’t say these things out loud, we live them in how we live. And as we go through this together, I pray that we might leave here with a new found passion for prayer. Okay, let's look at confession one:

I know that God is in control, but I think I can handle things by myself for now.

Illustration: Ella has finally reached the stage where she really wants to do things herself now. For instance, whenever we want to go somewhere, whether it is to the Church or to the store, she wants to be the one to buckle herself in and you better make sure that she gets to go inside wherever you’re going or you’re going to have one made toddler. And even though it takes a lot longer and it makes things far more difficult, it is the way she wants it to be.

In Matthew 6:9, the first words of the Lord’s Prayer are, “Our Father who art in Heaven…” When we read that, we are learning that the Father is both loving and wise. When we read this, we read that the Father is seated above everything else and that He is in control of everything. In James 4:13-17

James 4:13–17 NKJV

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

What we see here in James is the danger of living a life that assumes we are in charge, or that we can lay out our own future and handle what lies before us. Instead, what we are instructed to do is come before the Lord, acknowledging Him as being in control of all things and submit to Him knowing that whatever plans we have, whether they come to pass or are interrupted, are in the hands of God who will give us grace day by day.

And just like Ella, wanting to buckle herself up even though it would be better to let her mom and me do it, we also need to learn that our Lord is the one who is in control and we need to come before Him every day to ask for grace and strength to submit to His plan. And this leads us up to confession number two, which is:

I know that God is trustworthy, but I think I’ll carry my burdens on my own.

Illustration: Another thing about Ella, because she is awesome and gives great illustrations, was that I was moving our refrigerator so we could clean beneath it. And as I did that, Ella comes into the kitchen to see what all the commotion is about and as I’m moving it, she runs up beside me and begins to push along with me and when I finally had it in place, I step back and she is still pushing as hard as she can and that thing wouldn’t move an inch. Now a refrigerator is a big weight to bear for anyone, but for a toddler, that’s an unbelievable amount of weight to deal with isn’t it? And isn’t that how it is with our lives? We all have things that weigh us down, but we keep on pushing, we keep on fighting and we keep on not taking it to the Lord.

1 Peter 5:6-7 says,

1 Peter 5:6–7 NKJV

6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

We all have hardships, struggles and worries. And in our culture today, we all want life to be as perfect as we make it seem on social media, so we’re afraid of dealing with our problems, but it shouldn’t be this way with God. His arms are outstretched and His warmth may be known as He calls you to come to Him and cast your burdens on Him. What a beautiful thing it is to know that we are not a burden to the One who died for us.

In Luke 11:11-13, Jesus says,

Luke 11:11–13 NKJV

11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

What Jesus is saying here is that just as a child can look to their parents for what they need, so God wants us to look to Him for what we need. He wants you to come to Him. But one of the saddest confessions of an abandoned prayer closet is that we simply don’t think it’s a trip worth taking, because we feel we can handle these burdens on our own. And the last confession for us to look at today is:

I know that God is important, but other things just really deserve focus right now.

Illustration: When I was your age, I was heavily involved in band and drumline, so I would travel a lot and unfortunately we would miss a lot of church because I would either be in another state or I wouldn’t be getting home until super early in the morning and what that showed was where my focus was. Now, if you would have asked me, “Hey Hunter, is God important?” Of course I would have said yes, but apparently my brain didn’t tell my body that. Fortunately, my senior year that clicked and I made the adjustments that needed to be made, but as I look back on those years, I deeply regret that my focus wasn’t on the right thing sooner.

Look, I know that you all have a lot going on. Many of you have school work, sports, family life, work, friends, and maybe even boyfriends and girlfriends, and when we come to consider this subject, we know that we should focus on our walk with the Lord more, but there’s just so much going on. Let’s think about Daniel in Daniel 6. At this time Daniel has been elevated to a very high position in the Babylonian government so he had a lot going on in his life. Well, there were some men who hated him and so they tricked the King into making a law that said if anyone prayed to any god or person for 30 days they would be fed to lions. But even after this was signed, Daniel remained faithful to spend time with his God.

What I want us to grasp here is that no matter how busy our lives may get, we must make the Lord our top priority. We don’t want to be like the Disciples who fell asleep while Jesus was praying, no, we want to be like our Lord who, even in the midst of adversity, was found deep in prayer. Isn’t this what we want to be like? Like our Lord who stood firm in the midst of storms and trials? Don’t we want to be a people who fellowship with God? Certainly this is all possible because of the sufferings of Christ which He bought us with His blood and not only that but He has risen and is at the right hand of God the Father and it is by His work alone that we have access into the presence of the Father.

So, with that said, I hope we will all take prayer seriously, knowing that it is, most simply put, redeemed sinners talking to their loving, mighty, and gracious God.