{"id":5893,"date":"2020-08-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/?p=5893"},"modified":"2024-10-08T14:26:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T14:26:10","slug":"day-2-the-secret-of-the-shut-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/2020\/08\/25\/day-2-the-secret-of-the-shut-door\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 2: The Secret Of The Shut Door"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cBut you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly\u201d <strong>Matthew 6:6<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen Jesus taught on prayer, He gave primary emphasis to the secret place. In fact, the first thing He taught concerning prayer was the primacy of the secret place\u2026Jesus is saying, \u2018Your Father is already in the secret place. He has gone ahead of you; He is waiting for you. The moment you get to the secret place, you are in the immediate presence of your Father.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201dFurthermore, Jesus gives us the key to finding this secret place. If you\u2019re wondering what you must do to place yourself in the secret place, Jesus made it clear. To get there, all you have to do is shut your door!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen you enter your room, and shut your door, you are in the presence of your Father. Instantaneously! It matters not how you feel. Regardless of your soul\u2019s climate at that moment, you know with absolute confidence you have stepped into the chamber of your Father in heaven. The secret place is your portal to the throne, the place where you taste of heaven itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen you build your life on the blessed intimacy of a secret place relationship with God, you are building on the rock. You\u2019re getting your foundations in order. That\u2019s not simply my opinion, that\u2019s the explicit teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who hear this word and do it will not only enjoy intimacy with the Father on a daily basis, but they will also be equipped to sustain the greatest storms\u2014whether they originate from hell\u2019s fury or the world\u2019s distractions or the floodgates of heaven\u2019s blessings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t forget the secret: shut your door.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MY PRAYER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cOh Lord, I keep the door open too often and for too long. But I am learning that if I can only walk away from the tyranny of things demanding my attention, I will be walking right into Your attentive arms. I am tired from repeatedly failing but today\u2014I arise from the ashes with a fresh resolve and fresh grace to shut off the noises and enter into the quiet recess where You are waiting for me. From today Lord, I commit afresh to enter in and close the door; to quieten my spirit and to enjoy the sweet communion that is waiting for me. I have been deceived for too long. I have been satisfied with too little and I have not closed the door to drink deeper. I say NO today to the crowded itinerary that keeps yelling for my attention. I say NO today. I say a BIG NO! I thank You Lord for the sweet invitation into the warm embrace of divinity, and from today\u2014I look forward to sitting quietly with Your Word and Your Spirit. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>THE CHALLENGE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Can you decide today to CLOSE THE DOOR to all the noise; not to pick up your phone, the newspaper, or any other \u201ctime stealer\u201d until you have spent quality time with God?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can you earnestly and passionately pray for the grace to SAY NO to these liars who steal the blessings of meeting with God?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBut you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly\u201d Matthew 6:6 \u201cWhen Jesus taught on prayer, He gave primary emphasis to the secret place. In fact, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-50-days-pilgrim-challenge","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/50-days-pilgrim-challenge.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5894,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5893\/revisions\/5894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}