This is the word the LORD spoke about Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah 50:1
Please don’t tell anyone about this, but there’s a chair in my office that speaks to me. For several years its upholstered voice has been perfectly clear.
I have always known that time alone with God—time in His Word and private prayer—is a critical part of a man’s life. Some of my earliest recollections of my own dad were seeing him on his knees in the darkness of the early morning, his Bible laying open in front of him. But even though it was a familiar routine for my father, getting into a routine of Bible reading and prayer was a difficult habit for me to develop.
Several years ago, while I was building some closet shelves, it dawned on me that if it was important for me to have a place for organizing things for storage, I surely ought to have a place for reading and prayer. So I chose a particular chair across from my office desk. It seemed like just the right venue for conversations with God. His Word is critical for hearing His voice. Prayer is my response. So, when I read, I’m sitting in this chair, and when I pray, I kneel at this chair.
Over the next few years, even though I had made the promise to worship at this chair every day, sometimes I’d plop down in my desk chair in the early morning hours and dive into my to-do list. Let’s see, I’ve got to return so-and-so’s email. I need to finish this proposal and some fine-tuning on that contract. And when I’d look up from my work and gaze across the desk, I’d see the chair. “Uh, excuse me,” it would say to me in a gentle but direct tone of voice, “aren’t you overlooking something? Have you forgotten to read? To pray?”
“You’re right,” I’d respond. “I foolishly let the stack of work get in the way again. I didn’t worship today. Forgive me.”
I would get up, walk around my desk, sit to read, and kneel down for my daily talk with my heavenly Father. Then, before returning to my place, I’d whisper a thank-you to my faithful chair for the reminder.
Either Jeremiah was one of the world’s most disciplined “prayer warriors,” or he had a chair like mine. In either case, when you thumb through the chapters of his book, you realize that here was a man who was in touch with God. In fact, much of his writing includes words something like these: “The word of the Lord came to me” (32:6). Jeremiah’s walk with God was so intimate and so predictable that he could repeat the words he had heard from heaven.
Can you imagine a higher goal than to have this kind of connection with the sovereign Creator of the universe? Can you imagine the thrill of being led every day by His almighty hand? If this sounds good to you, you’re going to have to start to spend time in your Bible and in prayer. This contact with your heavenly Father is going to have to become a part of your daily routine.
Now you may be able to do this just by deciding to do it. That’s great. However, for those of us from the slow group who never received our automatically-pray-every-day diplomas, you may need a talking chair. And can I give you a little piece of advice? You probably ought to keep this a secret. A talking chair? Some folks won’t understand.