We all know the difficulty that often surrounds our time in secret prayer. I believe we far too often leave before ever gaining an experiential access before the throne. I am not describing some experience to be associated with the Charismatic movement. Every true believer knows the difference between mouthing words to God and real, life-imparting communion with the Prince of Glory. Our immunity to the world’s pleasure will wax thin unless we are having Christ-exalting, Spirit-saturated daily experiences alone with God. On this topic I thought I would give some advice I have received.
Vaylard Zupke has more reality of the things of God than any other man I have ever known. I once asked him if anything over the years has been a help to him in this area. He quoted Psalm 100:
Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise.
He said he will often sing a hymn before starting his time with the Lord. He advised getting a good Hymnal and working straight through it, singing one or two hymns a morning (The Redemption Hymnal is excellent). I must say the times I have done this since receiving this advice have been a blessing.
George Muller, who needs no introduction, has also given some advice in this area. He writes,
“The most important thing I had to do was to read the Word of God and to meditate on it. Thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, and instructed. Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible. But I often spent a quarter of an hour to an hour on my knees struggling to pray while my mind wandered. Now I rarely have this problem. As my heart is nourished by the truth of the Word, I am brought into true fellowship with God. I speak to my Father and to my Friend (although I am unworthy) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word. It often astonishes me that I did not see the importance of meditation upon Scripture earlier in my Christian life. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time unless he eats, so it is with the inner man. What is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God—not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe. No, we must consider what we read, ponder over it, and apply it to our hearts.”
I would add that I have found if I do not keep up communion with the Lord during the day, I find it much harder to gain access when I come before Him for a special time of prayer. A man who stays near the throne from 8 to 5 will not find himself cold when he has a moment to steal away to His Unseen Friend. In the same way, I find if I do not begin the day with my soul glad in the Lord, then it is almost impossible to keep up real communion during the day.
