Virginia Brandt Berg (1898-1968)
Meditation Moments 15:
The place where we find the guidance of the Lord is in the Secret Place of prayer, and we've called your attention a number of times to Matthew 6:6,
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee." -- We have talked about the place of prayer being a place of solace and strength and a source of victory over temptation,
But it is also a place where God gives you His leading, where He tells you what turn of the road to take, what path He wants you to tread: It's where He tells you just what He wants you to do. When Jesus called His disciples to Him and gave them their first public teaching in the Sermon on the Mount,
He gave them to understand that prayer was a vital part of the new Kingdom that He had come to set up, and that we must have a solitary place where we can be alone with God, some fixed spot where we can meet Him daily: There He promises to meet us.
This Secret Place alone with God is called the "inner chamber": It can be anywhere, but it must be a quiet time alone with God. Someone wrote some time ago, "Prayer seems such drudgery to me!" -- I can't see how that can be, when it is so comforting and made so attractive by the very presence of God!
God is in the Secret Place of prayer and it's so filled with His Love! It's love that awaits you there, no matter how weak and sinful you've been, or how hard your heart, or how little your faith. This is His invitation to you, telling you that He is waiting for you in the Secret Place of prayer.
If you could just make this your thought as you come, "He waits for me, He pities and loves me! It's not what I bring to Him, but what He waits to give me, as my Father, that's what counts. It's my Father, the Infinite and everlasting God that wants to meet me there in prayer."
To shut the door and pray to Him in secret! -- How marvelous! So Jesus taught His disciples that this is where He would be found, that He waited for them there!
I would say you can count that one a fool who thinks they can stand against the temptations of today or get the leading of God for what He wants them to do, without seeking His help in this Secret Place.
You know the World tempts! And the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life come against you with such force, the only way you can overcome is by God's help through the victory of faith and the shed Blood of Calvary! For there Jesus Christ overcame the Enemy and all power in heaven and on Earth was given into His hands.
Only through that power can we overcome the temptations of Satan! It's only by the sacrificing Spirit of God that is come down upon us in the Secret Place of Prayer that we can, as God's Word says, "have power over all the power of the Enemy." It's there in the Secret Place that the Lord becomes a wall of fire around us and we are able to resist temptation.
It is there that we are able to find exactly God's pattern for our day, or for our life. You can't confront your fierce Adversary alone! God's Word says, "When the Enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of God will raise a standard against him."
But you have to be in touch with the Spirit of God before you can confront such an adversary! You get that touch in the Secret Place of Prayer where His Spirit empowers you. Someone has said their temptations in life were just too great! Well, too great for whom?
Of course they are too great for you! But not for the God who waits for you to strengthen you in your time of need. It's only by His help that anyone can resist temptation, you were never supposed to resist it alone: That's why you need to get in touch with God so much! Because you can't have the victory in yourself!
God gave His Son to die in our stead for our sins, but not only for that, but to give us victory over sin! God said, "It's not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." -- Of course you can't stand against temptations alone, there has never been one who could!
This help is found in prayer and fellowship with God in the Secret Chamber of Prayer. The strength of the Enemy of your soul is so strong that you can't think to go out into the World to stand against him and the pressures of all Satanic powers of this atomic(?) age in human strength, it's impossible! -- In human wisdom, impossible!
You are going to be disappointed and utterly, tragically defeated if you try! Only God's power can do this! Why go so ill-equipped when God offers in love just what you need? Why choose the human when you can have the Divine? Why struggle in the natural when you can have the Supernatural?
It was never in God's plan that you should do otherwise than look to Him for strength, look to Him for His leading, for Him to pilot you and help you. Jesus said, "Without me ye can do nothing." Therefore, He points us towards God-given strength and we are helpless without it. That is why the Secret Place of Prayer is so important: Because there you get equipped and put on the armor of God to stand in the battle.
The arm of flesh will fail you, my friend, you dare not trust in your own! Put on the Gospel armor, and as God's Word says, "He, the King of Glory that reigns eternally, shall empower you by His own power." -- Remember, He's still on the Throne, He never forsakes His own, and prayer changes things.