What’s in Your Prayer Closet? Making Room for God in the New Year

Posted on Jan 24, 2023 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Hope Lyda

New beginnings offer us much grace. That’s why I’m a better nester as a new year awakens than I am a spring cleaner. It’s not about resolutions. Those feel judgy-wudgy. It’s about hope. I long to prepare physical and spiritual places where I can fall, lean, dream, crumble, and sigh.

But there’s so much stuff.

It occupies my home like an invited houseguest turned squatter who won’t chip in for groceries yet deposits dirty socks everywhere. I can’t blame anyone else. I invited this stuff into my life. It’s my doing. To keep it from being my undoing, a friend gifted me a day of tidying to regain territory. Another friend and I started a pinky promise to tackle small chores over weekends. We text each other “pinky power” encouragements and have one rule: no judgement if Friday unfolds into Monday like a unkempt sleeper sofa, showing no progress (only evidence of cheese puff binges).

As burdening as this physical chaos can be, the messier zone I need to address in the new year is my prayer closet. Not a nook in my house…though I’d love to talk bookshelves and candles.

I’m talking about the ultimate prayer closet—our hearts. The space where we meet God in stillness and openness, ready to be filled with his love. That is, when there’s room.

It is this heart that is the place of prayer…Prayer is standing in the presence of God with the mind in the heart; that is, at that point of our being where there are no divisions or distinctions and where we are totally one. There God's Spirit dwells and there the great encounter takes place. There heart speaks to heart. (Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart)

I want to clear a space for this kind of encounter with the Lord. How about you? Here is what I’ll be lugging to the spiritual curb in the next days. Are any of these familiar?

____ Regrets carved on stones, stacked but ready to tumble

____ Broken dreams I’ve saved and shoved to dark corners in case I need them for parts

____ Resentments crammed into accordion files so full I can’t find any original receipts

____ Stacks of score cards from years of comparing myself to others

____ Complaints I made so often they now echo in the prayer chambers of my heart

(And to think I invited all those things to take up space in my heart…for years!)

What’s in your prayer closet?

If it looks like mine, there’s good news, actually the good news. Jesus will help us. You know the words, “Create in me a pure heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10). Just as friends did for my physical spaces, Jesus will gently, gladly help us remove obstacles from our hearts. He does this because he is merciful God. (And, I suspect he’s tired of sitting on lawn bags stuffed with life debris.)

He won’t judge our mess. And when he tenderly holds up a painful memento, he’ll have a tissue ready before our lips quiver. “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). There’s no shame here. Only room for more that is sacred. More that is life-giving. More that is of God’s heart for us.

What needs to be removed from your personal prayer closet?
How might you start a new day, a new year, a new outlook with a heart open for holy conversations?

Need some ideas to get you started?

5 Ways to Start Your Year with Prayer

1. Grab a favorite book of prayers to carry and use anytime.

2. Select a verse that will be your lead-in prayer to break the ice.

3. Let a journal choose you (they do that, you know). Jot down prayers, praises, hopes.

4. Walk, draw, doodle, or sing a prayer. Express that heart!

5. Plan a regular time to meet God in your prayer closet. First thing in the morning or right after dinner have potential! (Suggestion: spend the first 5 minutes clearing the clutter together and then dive into what’s new.)