A Place to Pray

During the last couple of years, I have developed a habit of going to specific place to write a couple times a week. It’s nowhere spectacular, just a parking lot with a nice view.

Perhaps it’s silly, but for me, there’s something inspiring about being “outdoors” in my car with the breeze coming through my windows and the birds and other wildlife placidly living their lives out on the pond. Being surrounded by the beauty of God’s creation seems to help my thoughts to flow better.

When the schoolyear brings hectic days and hurried weekends, my two afternoons at the parking lot by the pond become an oasis of creativity and refreshing peace, an opportunity to reset my mind before a busy evening. One friend recently dubbed this habit, “ponding.”

On ponding days, I leave work with a sense of expectancy and anticipation: never knowing just what I will write or accomplish while I’m there. On days when I feel too exhausted to write, I look out at the view and just take time to rest before the Lord and let Him unclutter my mind and unburden my heart.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve made ponding a treat, or perhaps it’s just the mental conditioning of habit, but on summer days when I just can’t get my head into writing at home, I can drive to my writing place and almost invariably, something comes.

To be honest, that’s where this post came from.

You see, as I drove to my ponding place this week, I felt the familiar thrill of anticipation, and got to thinking about how it is helpful to have a specific place to write, as it is likewise helpful to have a specific place to pray.

We can pray anywhere, of course, at any moment, and perhaps it is because we have this freedom to pray whenever and wherever we want that we often neglect to actually do it.

 It is all too easy to think, “Oh, I’ll do that in a while,” or to get into the habit of sending up what my Pastor likes to refer to as “flare prayers” whenever we need something, but neglect to spend any time with God, being still before Him, or just taking time to share our heart with Him.

For me, the biggest downfall is multitasking. I think, “I’ll just finish my prayer time while I…” and then end up doing whatever it is instead of praying.

I can pray while doing some things, like driving or walking, doing dishes or laundry, but I have found that there also needs to be a time each day for undistracted time with God.

After all, my Heavenly Father does deserve my complete and undivided attention.

That’s why I’ve made it a habit to spend time with God right when I wake up in the morning, before I pick up my phone, before I even get out of bed. I don’t want any distractions.

But even with this daily time set aside, it is helpful for me to periodically have a specific place I can go to pray, and I think there’s Scriptural precedent for this:

When Jesus walked this earth, He prayed many times in many places, sometimes in the middle of a crowd, sometimes going off into a mountain by Himself. While He was in Jerusalem during the week of His crucifixion and resurrection, He had a specific spot where He and His disciples would go to pray. John 8:1-2 tells us,

“When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which He entered, and His disciples. Judas, also, which betrayed Him, knew the place:  for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with His disciples.”

Now, I know the verse doesn’t say Jesus went there only when He wanted to pray, but the fact that Judas knew where Jesus would be and when He would be there indicates that Jesus regularly went to that specific place, probably at that specific time, and likely for the purpose of spending time in prayer.

I think it’s fair to make an application that while we could pray anywhere at any time, it is helpful for us to make a habit of regularly spending time with God in a specific place, at a specific time.

Perhaps it’s first thing in the morning, in a specific comfy chair, with a blanket, a cup of coffee, and your Bible. Maybe for you moms of young children, it’s the first few delicious moments of silence when the kids finally go down for their nap. Or for you night owls, maybe it’s after the household has gone to sleep. Or perhaps, like me, you need a periodic visit to a pond.

Wherever your place of prayer may be, the important thing is to spend time with God, thanking and praising Him, sharing your heart with Him, and delighting in His presence.

“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.” Psalm 16:11