Thought for Friday, August 10th

August 10, 2012

The Road To A Relationship With God

Is Paved With Prayer

Part Five

“A Place to Pray”

“Private place and plenty of time are the life of prayer.”

-          E. M. Bounds

Is there an appropriate place to go for the purpose of praying?  Should our prayer time be restricted to a specific location or a designated spot?  Or can we pray any where and everywhere?

Oswald Chambers encouraged his parishioners to; “pray wherever you are.”

And while we should most certainly pray everywhere we go and anywhere we might be it is also important to have a special place of prayer as well.

“Do not have as your motive the desire to be known as a praying man.  Get an inner chamber in which to pray where no one knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret.”

-       Oswald Chambers

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. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.  Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Matthew 6:6-8

“Nowhere can we get to know the holiness of God, and come under its influence and power, except in the inner chamber.  It has been well said: ‘No man can expect to make progress in holiness who is not often and long alone with God.’”

-       Andrew Murray

There should never be a place that we go that we are not willing to call out to God: and like wise there should also be a special place of prayer that we go to be alone with God, without distractions and interruptions so that we can focus fully on our time with Him; while allowing for that time to also be still, listen and hear what He might want to say to us.

“Of all things, guard against neglecting God in the secret place of prayer.”

– William Wilberforce

Do you openly pray in all places, everywhere you go?  And even more importantly do you have a secret place of prayer where just you and God get together to spend some quality one on one time?

Today’s Prayer 

Father, I know you hear me whenever I call out to you, wherever I might be: but don’t let me get too busy or too distracted to allow for my personal private time with you too.

“Give me your eyes

For just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I’ve been missing

Give me your love for humanity.

Give me your arms for the brokenhearted

Ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see“

-  Lyrics from ‘Give Me Your Eyes’ by Brandon Heath and Jason Ingram