“Right to Privacy?”

Matthew 6: 6: “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father Who is in secret.” If we can only pray in our ‘inner rooms’ what about those who have no such private chambers? They are not excluded, for Jesus is again speaking symbolically. He Himself often prayed outdoors in a garden.(Mark 14: 32-35) Peter prayed on a rooftop. (Acts 10: 9) Suzanna Wesley, mother of the founder of Methodism, used to pull her long skirts over her head to pray, just to get away from the ruckus of her numerous children. You see, many of us have no literal ‘inner room’ in our homes; but Jesus is talking about the inner room of our hearts, similar to what he did in John 14: 2. The key point is, private and concentrated prayer, uninterrupted by forces internal or external, is vital to the condition of a believer’s soul.