Monthly Archives October 2018

One of the advantages or blessings of private prayer is that it is a safe, private place for confession and sorrow over our sins. And we do sin; we blow it; we fail, right?  If we tell ourselves that we don’t sin, then we make ourselves a liar and the truth is not in us (I John 1:8). We know that our God knows our sins, failures, and mistakes. He knows those that we are going to confess and He knows the sins that we are not even aware of committing–the sins of omission and commission. Our loving heavenly Father wants us to come to Him and share our shame and regrets. He wants us to know that in His presence is full acceptance and mercy–bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. He has already forgiven us. Judgement for all our sins have already been dealt with for all eternity (Hebrews 10). There is only comfort, restoration, and peace for us when we open our souls to our heavenly Father.

What about confessing all our sins to others? Does the Bible tell us to do that? Help us out, Thomas Brooks, our puritan pastor.

Consider that in secret we may more freely, and fully, and safely unbosom our souls to God than we can in the presence of many or a few. Hence the husband is to mourn apart, and the wife apart, Zech. 12:12–14, not only to shew the soundness of their sorrow, but also to shew their sincerity by their secresy. They must mourn apart, that their sins may not be disclosed nor discovered one to another. Here they are severed to shew that they wept not for company’s sake, but for their own particular sins, by which they had pierced and crucified the Lord of glory. In secret, a Christian may descend into such particulars, as in public or before others he will not, he may not, he ought not, to mention. Ah! how many Christians are there who would blush and be ashamed to walk in the streets, and to converse with sinners or saints, should but those infirmities, enormities, and wickednesses be written in their foreheads, or known to others, which they freely and fully lay open to God in secret. There are many sins which many men have fallen into before conversion and since conversion, which, should they be known to the world, would make themselves to stink, and religion to stink, and their profession to stink in the nostrils of all that know them.

Yea, should those weaknesses and wickednesses be published upon the house-tops, which many are guilty of before grace received, or since grace received, how would weak Christians be staggered, young comers on in the ways of God discouraged, and many mouths of blasphemy opened, and many sinners’ hearts hardened against the Lord, his ways, reproofs, and the things of their own peace; yea, how would Satan’s banner be displayed, and his kingdom strengthened, and himself infinitely pleased and delighted! It is an infinite mercy and condescension in God to lay a law of restraint upon Satan, who else would be the greatest blab in all the world. It would be mirth and music to him to be still a-laying open the follies and weaknesses of the saints.

There is not a sin that a saint commits, but Satan would trumpet it out to all the world, if God would but give him leave. No man that is in his right wits, will lay open to every one his bodily infirmities, weaknesses, diseases, ailments, griefs, &c., but to some near relation, or bosom friend, or able physician. So no man that is in his right wits will lay open to every one his soul-infirmities, weaknesses, diseases, ailments, griefs, &c., but to the Lord, or to some particular person that is wise, faithful, and able to contribute something to his soul’s relief. Should a Christian but lay open or rip up all his follies and vanities to the world, how sadly would some deride him and scorn him! and how severely and bitterly would others censure him and judge him! &c. When David was alone in the cave, then he poured out his complaint to God, and shewed before him his trouble, Ps. 142:2. And when Job was all alone, then his eyes poured out tears to God, Job 16:20. There is no hazard, no danger, in ripping up of all before God in a corner, but there may be a great deal of hazard and danger in ripping up of all before men.

There are times and reasons to confess your sin(s) before one another, and there are times and reasons to confess them only before God.  We must be wise with whom we share our weaknesses and sins. Do you have a spiritual confidante, someone to help you with accountability? Is there someone you feel safe with to be real and vulnerable? Is there someone you can count on to find encouragement and to pray with? A jewel is such a brother or sister to one’s soul.

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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, p. 173). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.

I love this consideration from Brooks. The bold texts below are great quotes that made me re-read. Here Brooks shows us how private prayer helps us grow out of hypocrisy. Sure in one aspect or another all of us are still growing out of hypocrisy. Pride and selfishness are instigators of this sin from within and they are relentless. Our goal is to grow out of all forms of hypocrisy and be real before everyone, all of the time, even to ourselves. As followers of Christ we labor in the working out of the sanctification that the Holy Spirit has worked in. Brooks shows us how the devotion of private prayer helps us grow out of hypocrisy.

Consider that the ordinary exercising of yourselves in secret prayer, is that which will distinguish you from hypocrites, who do all they do to be seen of men (They say of the nightingale, that when she is solitary in the woods, she is careless of her notes, but composes herself more quaintly and elegantly, if she conceives there be any auditors, or if she be near houses. Just so it is with hypocrites in religious duties.):

Matthew 6:5 (NKJV) — “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

Self is the only oil that makes the chariot-wheels of the hypocrite move in all religious concernments.

Thus you see that these hypocrites look more at men than at God in all their duties. When they give alms, the trumpet must sound; when they pray, it must be in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets; and when they fasted, they disfigured their faces that they might appear unto men to fast. Hypocrites live upon the praises and applauses of men. Naturalists report of the Chelydonian stone, that it will retain its virtue no longer than it is enclosed in gold. So hypocrites will keep up their duties no longer than they are fed, and encouraged, and enclosed with the golden praises and applauses of men. Hypocrites are like blazing stars, which, so long as they are fed with vapours, shine as if they were fixed stars; but let the vapours dry up, and presently they vanish and disappear.

Closet duty speaks out most sincerity. He prays with a witness that prays without a witness.The more sincere the soul is, the more in closet duty the soul will be, Job 31:33. Where do you read in all the Scripture, that Pharaoh, or Saul, or Judas, or Demas, or Simon Magus, or the scribes and pharisees, did ever use to pour out their souls before the Lord in secret? Secret prayer is not the hypocrite’s ordinary walk, his ordinary work or trade. There is great cause to fear that his heart was never right with God, whose whole devotion is spent among men, or among many; or else our Saviour, in drawing the hypocrite’s picture, would never have made this to be the very cast of his countenance, as he doth in Mat. 6:5.

It is very observable, that Christ commands his disciples, that they should not be as the hypocrites. It is one thing to be hypocrites, and it is another thing to be as the hypocrites. Christ would not have his people to look like hypocrites, nor to be like hypocrites. It is only sincerity that will enable a man to make a trade of private prayer. In praying with many, there are many things that may bribe and provoke a carnal heart, as pride, vain-glory, love of applause, or to get a name. A hypocrite, in all his duties, trades more for a good name than for a good life, for a good report than for a good conscience; like fiddlers, that are more careful in tuning their instruments, than in composing their lives. But in private prayer there is no such trade to be driven.

The exercise of private prayer–private devotions made of prayer and Scripture meditation, is an exercise and training in humility and sincerity. These two virtues are fed and strengthened, and thus built up within as we pursue closet time with the One who made our hearts, sees our hearts, and welcomes our hearts.  It is because of Jesus Christ that we are free to be free, that is, to be real among and before both God and man.

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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, p. 172). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.

Brooks asks a question that many have thought: But why was our Lord Jesus so much in private prayer? Why was he so often with God alone?   He then gives six answers.

Ans. 1. First, It was to put a very high honour and value upon private prayer; it was to enhance and raise the price of this duty. Men naturally are very apt and prone to have low and undervaluing thoughts of secret prayer. But Christ, by exercising himself so frequently in it, hath put an everlasting honour and an inestimable value upon it. But,

Ans. 2. Secondly, He was much in private prayer, he was often with God alone, that he might not be seen of men, and that he might avoid all shows and appearances of ostentation and popular applause. He that hath commanded us to abstain from all appearances of evil, 1 Thes. 5:22, would not himself, when he was in this world, venture upon the least appearance of evil. Christ was very shy of every thing that did but look like sin; he was very shy of the very show and shadow of pride or vain-glory.

Ans. 3. Thirdly, To avoid interruptions in the duty. Secresy is no small advantage to the serious and lively carrying on of a private duty. Interruptions and disturbances from without are oftentimes quench-coals to private prayer. The best Christians do but bungle when they meet with interruptions in their private devotions.

Ans. 4. Fourthly, To set us such a blessed pattern and gracious example, that we should never please nor content ourselves with public prayers only, nor with family prayers only, but that we should also apply ourselves to secret prayer, to closet prayer. Christ was not always in public, nor always in his family, but he was often in private with God alone, that by his own example he might encourage us to be often with God in secret; and happy are they that tread in his steps, and that write after his copy.

Ans. 5. Fifthly, That he might approve himself to our understandings and consciences to be a most just and faithful High Priest, Heb. 2:17, John 17. Christ was wonderful faithful and careful in both parts of his priestly office, viz., satisfaction and intercession; he was his people’s only spokesman. Ah! how earnest, how frequent was he in pouring out prayers, and tears, and sighs, and groans for his people in secret, when he was in this world, Heb. 5:7. And now he is in heaven, he is still a-making intercession for them, Heb. 7:25.

Ans. 6. Sixthly, To convince us that his Father hears and observes our private prayers, and bottles up all our secret tears, and that he is not a stranger to our closet desires, wrestlings, breathings, hungerings, and thirstings.

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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, pp. 170–171). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.

Brooks continues proving that every believer must put private prayer (closet prayer as he often called it) a top priority in his/her spiritual life. In the following argument Brooks slam dunks the point. Some believers may brush off, with some excuse, the examples of saints in Scripture and the saints in church history. But can you brush off the following? Better yet, let us allow these scriptures to guide us, encourage us, speak to us, and lead us to spend time alone with God the Father.

“When Christ was on earth, he did much exercise himself in secret prayer; he was often with God alone, as you may see in these famous scriptures:

Mat. 14:23, ‘And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray; and when the evening was come, he was there alone.’ Christ’s choosing solitudes for private prayer, doth not only hint to us the danger of distraction and deviation of thoughts in prayer, but how necessary it is for us to choose the most convenient places we can for private prayers. Our own fickleness and Satan’s restlessness calls upon us to get into such corners, where we may most freely pour out our souls into the bosom of God:

Mark 1:35, ‘And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.’ As the morning time is the fittest time for prayer, so solitary places are the fittest places for prayer:

Mark 6:46, ‘And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray.’ He that would pray to purpose, had need be quiet when he is alone:

Luke 5:16, ‘And he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed.’ (Greek, He was departing and praying) to give us to understand that he did thus often. When Christ was neither exercised in teaching nor in working of miracles, he was then very intent on private prayer:

Luke 6:12, ‘And it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.’ Did Christ spend whole nights in private prayer to save our souls; and shall we think it much to spend an hour or two in the day for the furtherance of the internal and eternal welfare of our souls? Luke 21:37, ‘And in the day-time he was teaching in the temple, and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives.’ Christ frequently joins praying and preaching together, and those whom Christ hath joined together, let no man presume to put asunder:

Luke 22:39, 41, 44, 45, ‘And he came out, and went as he was wont to the mount of Olives, and his disciples also followed him. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down and prayed. And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood’ (clotted or congealed blood) ‘falling down to the ground’ (never was garden watered before or since with blood as this was). ‘And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow.’ Ah! what sad pieces of vanity are the best of men in an hour of trial and temptation! These very men, that a little before did stoutly profess and promise that they would never leave him nor forsake him, and that they would to prison for Christ, and die for Christ, yet when the day of trial came, they could not so much as watch with him one hour; they had neither eyes to see nor hands to wipe off Christ’s bloody sweat; so John 6:15–17.

Thus you see, by all these famous instances, that Christ was frequent in private prayer. Oh that we would daily propound to ourselves this noble pattern for our imitation, and make it our business, our work, our heaven, to write after this blessed copy that Christ hath set us, viz., to be much with God alone. Certainly Christianity is nothing else but an imitation of the divine nature, a reducing of a man’s self to the image of God, in which he was created ‘in righteousness and true holiness.’ A Christian’s whole life should be nothing but a visible representation of Christ.

The heathens had this notion amongst them, as Lactantius reports, that the way to honour their gods was to be like them. Sure I am that the highest way of honouring Christ is to be like to Christ: 1 John 2:6, ‘He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also to walk even as he walked.’ Oh that this blessed Scripture might always lie warm upon our hearts. Christ is the sun, and all the watches of our lives should be set by the dial of his motion. Christ is a pattern of patterns; his example should be to us instead of a thousand examples. It is not only our liberty, but our duty and glory, to follow Christ in all his moral virtues absolutely. Other patterns be imperfect and defective, but Christ is a perfect pattern; and of all his children, they are the happiest that come nearest to this perfect pattern.

Heliogabalus loved his children the better for resembling him in sin. But Christ loves his children the more for resembling him in sanctity. I have read of some springs that change the colour of the cattle that drink of them into the colour of their own waters, as Du Bartas sings:

‘Cerona, Xanth, and Cephisus do make
The thirsty flocks, that of their waters take,
Black, red, and white; and near the crimson deep,
The Arabian fountain maketh crimson sheep.”

Certainly, Jesus Christ is such a fountain, in which whosoever bathes, and of which whosoever drinks, shall be changed into the same likeness, 2 Cor. 3:18.

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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, pp. 169–170). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.

In the previous post Brooks cited many godly men and women who knew the treasures of private prayer time with God.  Here is his follow up:

The Indian, hearing that his ancestors were gone to hell, said that then he would go thither too. Some men have a mind to go to hell for company’s sake. Oh that we were as much in love with the examples of good men as others are in love with the examples of bad men; and then we should be oftener in our closets than now we are! Oh that our eyes were more fixed on the pious examples of all that have in them aliquid Christi, anything of Christ, as Bucer spake! Shall we love to look upon the pictures of our friends; and shall we not love to look upon the pious examples of those that are the lively and lovely picture of Christ? The pious examples of others should be the looking-glasses by which we should dress ourselves. He is the best and wisest Christian that writes after the fairest Scripture copy, that imitates those Christians that are most eminent in grace, and that have been most exercised in closet prayer, and in the most secret duties of religion.

Do you have such a person?

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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, pp. 168–169). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.