Get in the closet.

Matthew 6.6.

The reason Jesus addresses public prayer in his Sermon on the Mount is to discourage hypocrisy. That’s what you saw in public places in Israel: People conspicuously praying so that others would see them, and think them devout.

Whereas Jesus told his followers that if you legitimately want to pray, make it a private conversation.

Matthew 6.6 KWL

“You, whenever you pray,

go into your private room, closing your door;

and pray to your Father in private.

And your Father, who sees what’s done in private,

will pay you back {in the open}.”

Ἐν τῷ φανερῷ/en to faneró, “in the open,” was added to Matthew by the Textus Receptus, both here and in verse 4. It’s not in the oldest copies of Matthew; it was added in the fourth century. Again, since Jesus is bringing us our compensation at his return, Rv 22.12 this isn’t a problematic addition. Still, Jesus didn’t say it.

The KJV translates ταμεῖόν/tameión as “closet,” and the NET as “inner room.” Your average middle eastern house would have two rooms—the main room, which you could access through the front door, and the smaller back room, which you could only access from the inside. Guests could enter the main room, but only family went into the back room: It was private. That’s the tameión. Wealthier middle easterners would have a number of ’em in their homes, and use them for storage—hence the KJV’s translation “closet.” But it doesn’t have to be a closet. Just someplace private.

Now, why would you have to go someplace private to pray, when it’s much easier to speak with God in your mind, and not aloud? Simple: Ancient middle easterners didn’t pray like that. They prayed aloud.

You’re talking to God, right? Which means you’re talking to God. Not thinking at God. I know; a lot of Christians pray silently, and for many of us it’s the only way we pray. Most of the time it’s not appropriate to pray aloud. If you prayed aloud at work, people’d think you’re weird. If you prayed aloud in public school, some idiot would complain about it. If everybody in church simultaneously prayed aloud, it’d get loud (and in ancient times, when people prayed aloud, it absolutely did get loud).

In general, we’re encouraged to pray silently, and that’s understandable in a lot of places. But Christians get the wrong idea and think we’re always to pray silently. No we’re not.

Lookit how Jesus demonstrates prayer in the scriptures. When he went off to pray, even by himself, privately between him and the Father, other people could overhear him. Like in Gethsemane. Mt 26.39, Lk 22.41-42 The reason we even have records in the bible of people’s prayers, is ’cause these folks weren’t silent. They spoke.

I should add: Praying in your mind is much harder than praying aloud. Because the mind wanders. (By design! It’s how the creative process works.) In the middle of our mental conversations with God, stray thoughts pop into our heads. In a verbal conversation, we can choose whether we’ll say such things aloud, but in a mental conversation, we can’t do that: There they are. We just thought ’em. They interrupted our prayers, like a rude friend who thinks he’s being funny, but isn’t. Ordinarily we ignore those thoughts. In mental prayers, we find it really hard to. Even the best-trained minds struggle with that. And a lot of Christians get frustrated with it, so they give up and pray seldom, if at all. Don’t do that. If you lose your train of thought all the time during prayer, stop praying silently. Pray aloud. It helps a lot.

“But what,” Christians object, “about privacy?” Discussions between us and God are often sensitive. We don’t want people listening in on our conversations, like they do when we answer our mobile phones at the coffeehouse. We want privacy. That’s why prayed in our minds in the first place. And this is precisely why Jesus talks about praying in private.

Making a prayer closet.

Jesus instructs his students to go into their private room for prayer, instead of doing it in public for all to see, and tempting ourselves to put on a show for onlookers. Plenty enough hypocrites do that already. There’s a time and place for public prayer, but our average conversations with God aren’t that. Those need to be conducted, same as our phone conversations, in private.

And some of us Christians have built ourselves a literal prayer closet. We’ll take an unused closet, or a spare corner of the house which we can partition off, or even build a booth. It’ll be just big enough to sit down in, and maybe include a few items which we like to use to help us pray—a bible, prayer books, our prayer journal, candles, incense, ikons or crosses, beads, a guitar or a music player, a prayer mat, you name it. That’s our prayer space. We’ll go in there, shut the door, and get loud.

Some churches and Christian ministries even build them into their buildings for just this purpose. My seminary had a prayer closet in the chapel, and installed prayer closets in some of the newer women’s dormitories. True, half the dorms used them as actual closets, and stored extra things in there. The prayer closet in the chapel was notorious as a make-out spot. But every once in a while, revival would break out and the students would clear out the prayer closets and go back to using ’em for prayer.

True, having a closet-sized prayer space is a bit literal of an interpretation. It doesn’t really fit the historical context. But that’s not to say prayer closets aren’t useful! If you regularly use it for prayer and meditation, it’ll do you a whole lot of good. Stepping into the room means we intend to speak with God, and prayer and meditation follow naturally and easily.

Some Christians figure this is because God’s presence hangs out in the prayer space. And we should know better than that: God’s everywhere. If we feel him more strongly in a prayer space, that’s psychological: We’re used to meeting him there, so we expect it. It’s the same reason so much office work gets done in the office, and not at the Krispy Kreme down the street: You could do your work at the Krispy Kreme, but you’re more likely to eat doughnuts. The same is true of prayer rooms: We could pray anywhere, but we will pray in a prayer room.

So if you think it’ll help you pray better—if you think it’ll help your focus, and wanna try to use it daily—you can create your own “prayer closet.” It’s easiest when you already have extra space in your home. Take over the spare bedroom, or even the spare room’s closet. If you prefer to sit or kneel, find someplace with enough room for that. If you prefer to lie face-down on the floor, you’re gonna need space. If you bring prayer props, make room for that too.

Make it comfortable. Not so comfortable you could fall asleep, but not so uncomfortable you’ll never use the space. Remove anything which would distract you. Put in a chair—or not. Put up a bulletin board or whiteboard if you wanna use it to keep track of things to pray. Take your journal. Close the door. Then pray. Meditate. And only that: Do nothing but pray and meditate in that space. When you’re done, leave.

If you bring your phone with you, don’t answer it in the prayer space: Step outside to answer it. Whenever you find yourself reading or studying your bible instead of meditating on it, it’s time to go. Prayer and meditation, nothing else, is for the prayer space; other activities are outside.

And there you go.

Or use other available spaces.

Don’t have an extra space? Then you gotta make the space. No, I’m not saying you should get plywood and nails and build a booth… although some Christians have done precisely that. I’ve seen an office partitioned off with a shower curtain, and behind the curtain was that Christian’s prayer space. I’ve seen a garage with a pup tent in it, and the tent was that Christian’s prayer space. I’ve seen a no-longer-working pickup truck in a driveway, its windows blocked out, and that truck was that Christian’s prayer space. I’ve seen Christians pray under tables, under beds, in tool sheds, in their kids’ playhouses. Get creative. There are always options.

Your prayer space doesn’t necessarily have to be in your house. The back patio at 6 a.m. is plenty of privacy for me. Where I used to work, there was a circle of trees on the grounds which made a really nice prayer space. When I went to seminary, ’cause of the other students humping in the prayer room, I used our chapel. Now, outside-the-house prayer spots are less private, and sometimes less convenient. But if nobody else goes there, and nobody else can overhear you when you pray aloud, they’re an option. Use them.

And in a pinch, sometimes nothing works so well as just ducking into the bathroom, locking the door behind you, and having it out with God. Yeah, people may wonder why you spend so much time in the can. So what? You need your prayer time, and you need your privacy. Do whatever it takes to get it.