In and Within 3 It's All About Attitude

[HKHaugan]

“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (Mt.6:5-6 KJV).”  (I have deep affection for the King James Version.)

The context here is critical.  Jesus gives us a picture of polar opposites, those who pray to look spiritual and those who pray to be spiritual.  The first is religious.  The second is relational.  The first is self-deifying.  The second is self-humbling.  The first seeks control of self and others.  The second seeks God’s will.  The first is ‘me first’ ‘others second’ ‘God third.’  The second is ‘God first’ ‘others second’ ‘me third.’  

 

So we come to the second command of Jesus,---after you enter your closet shut the door.  It immediately assumes we have come from without to within, from out to in.  We leave the world with all of its encumbrances outside.  That means jobs, people, even close relationships and the myriad problems that come with them. We shut the door to everything outside in order to let everything that is within come out before Him.  It’s a decision to separate our sin-infected mind from the world with its ideas, emotions and spirits. 

 

What Jesus wants is a naked mind, a naked heart and a naked spirit ready to be dressed with clothing only He can provide.  “Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.  For thy loving kindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth (Ps.26:2-3).”  David is requesting God to expose what is really controlling his heart and spirit.  Are the words of Scripture truly His reins or is he letting his mind and heart come up with his own way of responding apart from God?  These are questions that undress us as well and can only be answered when we leave the world and shut the door.  Paul tells us, “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh (Rom.13:14).”

 

But David’s questions are helpful.  What these questions do is to remove the veil from what motivates our heart.  One summary word describes it---attitude.  When the Lord tells us to go into our closet and shut the door He wants us to look within and take stock of our attitude.  It is not how we’re dressed externally, that is, the methods we devise apart from God to impress others, but how we’re dressed attitudinally that gives us a true measure of ourselves.  The heart is where our attitude lives.  Attitude reflects our inner character, the invisible shape of our heart and the spiritual condition that defines it.

 

If sin and its self-centered behavior in thought and heart shape our attitude then we end up completely alone.  However, if our Creator shapes our attitude relationally then, slowly shedding the world’s false clothing, we find we are never alone.  Never alone we gain His wisdom and grow relationally in God discovering an honesty about life that draws others to us and we to them.   

 

There are three steps in Jesus’ calling us within. 

 

The first is closing the door to the world’s mindset ‘in and within (1Jn.2:15-17).’ 

 

The second step is to recognize on the inside of the door is a waiting gracious and relational God,---a loving Father, a Lord of love and a Spirit of love.  “The Kingdom of God is within (Lk.17:21).” 

 

The third step is realizing and relying on the security of His presence that enables us to empty ourselves of all the strategies and schemes we devise apart from God that we believe give us control of our daily destiny.  That means facing the strongholds that have bound our attitude, the tendencies we have to take control when circumstance closes in and accepting the need to stay repentant and naked before God (Ps.27:1).

 

Our example of course is Jesus.  Paul experienced in Jesus something that gave him pause to praise Him when he said we need the mindset, the attitude of Jesus (Php.2:5), who “…emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men…(Php.2:7 ASV).”  Jesus emptied Himself of His eternal royal status so that we who have been spiritually reborn could learn from Him how to empty ourselves of the effects of having been born in sin and separated from God. 

 

What we do ‘in and within’ is the foundation for what we do when we are out and about.  The two are inseparable. 

 

Next we will deal with prayer behind closed doors.  “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”