Don’t Forget the Closet

2 Chronicles 6:13
“For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven,”

After the building of the magnificent temple, Solomon wanted to take some time to dedicate this building to God. It says in the verse above that Solomon built a scaffold in the midst of the court so that he could kneel on it in front of the people and pray to God. This was no doubt a wonderful time for Solomon and the people of Israel. The prayer he prayed was truly a great prayer. It is certainly a prayer that we can model in our own prayer life.

What bothers me about this scene is that he is praying on the scaffold, but in the closet there doesn’t seem to be much prayer. Instead, it says about Solomon in 1 Kings 11:1, “But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;” His prayer on the scaffold certainly portrayed that he had a great private life, but the verse above shows us that his private life didn’t match his public life. If he would have treated his private life the same way he built a scaffold for his public life, then you would have seen a difference in 1 Kings 11:1.

Christians are very good about building a scaffold and putting their Christian life on display in front of everyone, but their private lives oftentimes don’t match what they are portraying to everyone else. This double life always leads to heartache. This double life always leads to children learning to be deceptive with their Christianity. There is nothing wrong with building a scaffold in your life and putting your Christian life on display in front of the world, but don’t come down from the scaffold and live differently in the closet.

God demands that we spend more effort on making sure the closet is right than we do on putting up a display on the scaffold. Matthew 6:6 says, “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.” It is what you do in the closet that truly reveals to God what you are like.

Let me ask you, what is in your closet? If we were to go into your spiritual closet and display on the scaffold what we found, would it mirror what you have been doing on the scaffold? Your closet life will eventually catch up to what you do on the scaffold. You may be able to hide lust, hatred, revenge, covetousness, bitterness and others sins in your closet for a short time, but eventually what is in your closet will affect what you do on the scaffold.

Certainly, what you do on the scaffold is important. Yes, you should do right on the scaffold as you put your Christian life on display, but be sure that your closet life mirrors what you are putting on display. The closer your closet life resembles the life on display, the more influence your Christian life will have on others. Let this devotional be your motivation to make your closet life what it ought to be.