Where Do You Go To Be Alone With God? Series

As always, the question:

Where do you go to be alone with God?

Do you have somewhere that you can go and shut out the distractions and demands of everyday life just spend some quality time with God?

We are spending a year considering Powerful Prayers, or Powerful Pray ERS and there are many books about prayer, and how we should pray,

Some authors say that you should start the day with prayer, willingly giving God the first part of our day – before we start doing anything else we can to pray.

Others say that it is better to stop at the end of the day to give God thanks and praise for the things that happened during the day

then asking Him to help you face the circumstances and situations of the following day.

The truth is that not everyone is a morning person and not everyone is able to focus after a long day of work.

It does not really matter when we pray -

what matters most is that we take the time to pray.

Do you actively choose to put aside time for God in your schedule or do you just grab a moment for prayer when it fits into your day?

Jesus often set aside time to pray, He would draw aside from the crowds, from His disciples, from His friends and pray.

Personally, I choose to start and end my day with prayer.

I start my with a short devotional, read the Bible and then spend some time in prayer.

Then at the end of the day, or sometime early in the morning of the following day, as I lay down to go to sleep I read another short devotional on my iPhone then I pray before going to sleep.

Just in case your wondering, I do pray more than twice in a day.

I pray for those who are on my prayer list and for those who the Lord will lay on my heart throughout the day.

I pray before meetings, I pray before services,

I pray before meals, I pray when I’m driving.

I even pray about situations and circumstances that my friends publicly tell the world about on Facebook or Twitter.

1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 tells us to “Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”

God wants us to make praying to Him a regular habit. This doesn’t mean we will pray without a pause all day every day.

It simply means we need to develop the habit of regular prayer.

Maybe you struggle to know who to pray for or what to pray about.

You could pray for your family and friends.

You could pray for your neighbours or people at work.

You could pray for the man and woman who run the shop next door.

You could use a copy of Sunday2Sunday to pray for the different ministries and activities that take place across our group of churches.

You could pray for the eKids work - for the children and the leaders.

You pray could pray for the Sunday Youth Bible Class, or the Friday Night Gathering’s.

You could pray for Tea Timers or the women’s meetings

You could pray for the worship team or our new youth band ‘love your enemies’

You could pray for the church board and the ministers, or Keith in his work as Chaplain.

There are so many things we could pray for,

but sometimes, despite out best intentions,

life just seems to get in the way of prayer.

Are you often too busy to stop what you are doing and just pause, pray and listen to God speak into your life?

Jesus took the time to find a quiet place, a private place so that He could spend time in prayer.

If Jesus recognised the importance of spending time in prayer then shouldn’t we do the same?

Jesus knew the time to go to the cross was approaching.

He had spent time with his disciples there in the Upper Room, they had Supper together,

He had told them how His body would be broken,

He had told them about the New Covenant in His blood,

He had told them that one of them would betray Him

Jesus knew that is in a few short hours,

Judas would betray Him with a kiss,

then hand Him over to an angry mob.

With that hour swiftly approaching,

Jesus choose to make time to pray to seek the Will of the Father.

Jesus choose a garden as His quiet place,

His place of retreat before battle,

a place to be alone with Father God.

When the pressures of the world feel too much to bear, when the stress of today,

or the worries of tomorrow press down we need to take the time to turn to Our loving heavenly father in prayer.