Some Christians do ask themselves these questions: Why should I close my eyes when talking to my creator? Why close my eyes in worship? Why should I close my eyes when I pray? Is it in the scripture? Shockingly, many people do that even when they don’t know the reason behind it.
Dolapo, a friend of mine in secondary school once told me that if I don’t close my eyes, God will
pluck my eyes and ever since then I do take closing my eyes seriously and trust me, some Christians also have this belief.
I then started closing my eyes because I don’t want God coming at me during the hour of me begging Him for something and then boom! He pokes my eyes! Then it becomes one problem added to the one I had.
My Muslim friends will always laugh at me during the hour of prayer and ask satirically: Why do Christians even close their eyes? What’s the use? My only and constant answer was "I don’t want God to get angry at me. I just need to obey him."
That fear was in me already. The answer I got at first made me close my eyes, and not the valid reason for closing one’s eyes. Despite finding it childish and silly to believe, I still think there’s a reason to why I should actually close my eyes while praying and worshipping God. Why don’t I close my eyes during praise? Or during sermon also?
I don’t think closing one’s eyes while praying is compulsory. I also do not think it’s in the scripture to close one’s eyes when praying or singing worship songs.
In the article Johnson Olawale wrote about closing our eyes during prayers, he said that the Bible does not tell us to close our eyes during worship or prayer.
The only thing Jesus told us about praying in the scripture is that: “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you; they have their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you." – Matthew 6:5-6.
Psychologically, it is believed that when you pray with your eyes closed, you tend to be more focus and seem less distracted and most importantly, you connect with God in the spirit realm and by so doing, it prevents your mind from wandering off during prayers.
Praying with our eyes closed is not a law and it is not compulsory. God will never pluck your eyes if you don’t close your eyes. But for the prayer to be more effective, it becomes imperative to close our eyes when praying .
Moreover, there is no definite posture to prayers. You can choose to sit, stand, kneel or lie on the ground when you pray – and not necessarily and strictly stand.
These are not the most important things as against how emphasized they are in some quarters. The most important thing to take cognizance of when praying is to pray genuinely from your heart. And also having the faith that God is able and willing to answer your prayers – standing, sitting, closing your eyes or otherwise.
