But when you pray, go into your [most] private room, and, closing the door, pray to your Father, Who is in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you in the open (Matthew 6:6- Amplified).
This most private room Jesus mentioned here is a bedroom. It’s a place of intimacy between husband and wife. It’s a place where no one else is invited. It’s a place that is secure from intrusion.
The Father wants to develop an intimate relationship with each one of His children. He wants each of us to find that private place of meeting with Him where we can bear our hearts to Him and share our deepest secrets. He wants to develop a closeness with us that affects the whole of life.
Many believers find this private place with the Father intimidating. They have not been raised in an environment that allows them to really bear their heart. For them, most relationships are casual and surface.
It takes time to become comfortable enough with someone to be able to share the intimate secrets of your heart with them. The Father wants this kind of relationship with us. It’s a close, heart-bearing, honest, transparent, and loving relationship. It’s life-freeing and life-producing.
In order to get close in this way with someone you must first develop trust. You must know that they will accept you regardless of what you say. For me to develop this kind of trust in my Father God, I had to know that He would not reject me if I was totally honest with Him. I had to know that our relationship was so secure that He would listen and not become angry when I was honest, heartfelt, and vulnerable.
I found Ephesians 1:4-5-(NLT) to be a great help: Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. In Christ God sees us without fault. He forgives all of our past and sees the best in us and not the worst.
God even went a step further than forgiving us, He adopts us! He takes us out of our harsh environment of insecurity, abuse, neglect, misunderstanding, and fear, and places us in His family where there is an environment of love, acceptance, forgiveness, openness, peace, and transparency.
Another thought that has helped me open up to what I thought was an austere, Holy, unapproachable God, was the thought that He actually loves me because He wants to and not because it’s just His nature to do so. John 16:27 (Amplified) reads: For the Father Himself tenderly loves you because you have loved Me and have believed that I came out from the Father. The word for love in this verse in the Greek is the word for a friendship type of love.
Friendship is a result of two people liking certain qualities in each other. I began to open up to God as I thought about this verse and how God actually likes me because He wants to, and that He wants a close relationship with me and wants me to get to know Him.
Yes, it’s a challenge to open up to God if you are not accustomed to opening your heart to anyone, but I encourage you to give it a try!
To begin this open, heartfelt, private room experience with the Father, find a place free from intrusion where no one will interrupt you. Then read Psalm 139. Realize that the Father loves you as much as He loves Jesus! He knows every thought, purpose, motive, intent, desire, need, and want in your life. He sees everything about you. He is absolute love and wants the best for you. He is longing for you to open your heart to Him.
Talk to Him about the things that bother you. Tell Him everything; the good, the bad, and the ugly. He already knows. But He wants you to submit your needs to Him in simple faith. When you do this, it gives Him permission to help you, and it will free you from life’s intense pressures that build up inside. It’s this acknowledging Him in all your ways (Proverbs 3: 4-5) that allows Him to move on your behalf.
Intimacy with the Father makes us care free and worry free, and keeps stress from building up inside. Most of our mental, emotional, and physical problems are stress related. Personal intimacy with the Father is His answer to human stress.
The Father has a longing to be close to you today. Go find Him in the private room.
Psalms 139:1-18 (TPT)
Lord, You know everything there is to know about me. 2 You perceive every movement of my heart and soul, and You understand my every thought before it even enters my mind. 3–4 You are so intimately aware of me, Lord. You read my heart like an open book and You know all the words I’m about to speak before I even start a sentence! You know every step I will take before my journey even begins. 5 You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way, and in kindness You follow behind me to spare me from the harm of my past. With your hand of love upon my life, You impart a blessing to me. 6 This is just too wonderful, deep, and incomprehensible! Your understanding of me brings me wonder and strength. 7 Where could I go from your Spirit? Where could I run and hide from your face? 8 If I go up to heaven, You’re there! If I go down to the realm of the dead, you’re there too! 9 If I fly with wings into the shining dawn, You’re there!
If I fly into the radiant sunset, You’re there waiting!10 Wherever I go, Your hand will guide me; Your strength will empower me. 11 It’s impossible to disappear from You or to ask the darkness to hide me, for Your presence is everywhere, bringing light into my night. 12 There is no such thing as darkness with You. The night, to You, is as bright as the day; there’s no difference between the two. 13 You formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside and my intricate outside, and wove them all together in my mother’s womb. 14 I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything You do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it! How thoroughly You know me, Lord! 15 You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place, carefully, skillfully shaping me from nothing to something.
16 You saw who you created me to be before I became me! Before I’d ever seen the light of day, the number of days You planned for me were already recorded in your book. 17–18 Every single moment You are thinking of me! How precious and wonderful to consider that You cherish me constantly in Your every thought! O God, your desires toward me are more than the grains of sand on every shore!
When I awake each morning, You’re still with me.