People often say how important it is to have a regular prayer time every day. A time dedicated to checking in with God. A chance to be like Jesus—and closer to Jesus—as you get by yourself.
I also have found it’s really valuable to have a regular place to pray. Your chosen spot. You can go back there again and again and check in. Checking out to check in. Here are just a few of the reasons.
A regular place will provide prayer stimulus. Every place has its own familiar noises and sounds and even smells. When you have chosen a place, all those stimuli will signal to you: “I’m here to pray. I need to pray. God, here I am. I’m listening.”
These days, my place is on the sofa in the TV room with a pillow behind me. I can hear traffic outside, the birds chirping (reminding me of what Jesus said about emulating the birds), the wind in the trees, a distant siren sometimes (a reason to pray). They are my call to worship.
Prayers can sanctify a place. There’s nothing remotely holy looking about that old sofa. And the TV room is hardly a chapel or church. If I opened my eyes, I’d start obsessing over how I need to wash the windows. Again. Soon.
But plopping myself down there first thing in the morning makes me feel ready for whatever is going to come up during the day. Sometimes I turn to a verse of Scripture. Sometimes I look for the words of a specific prayer. Most of all, I listen to the noise in my head.
How can I connect? What do I need to give over to God? How do I let go and move forward? How do I relax in God’s presence? The sofa says “Now. It’s time.”
That place will lessen your self-consciousness about prayer. Just the humility of a place. An old sofa to remind me of my humility. Of course, my mind wanders. But that’s just part of the process. Each time I wander away I have a chance to wander back. A constant spiritual journey.
To pray throughout the day is essential. But it wouldn’t really happen if I didn’t start my day this way. The world is busy to keep us distracted. The news blares, the phone fills with texts, the computer spits out emails. Everything has this tone of urgency: now, now, now, now!
Starting my day in that quiet place, I’m better at keeping it all in perspective. There is, after all, the news of the world and then the Good News. I need quiet time to remind myself of that!
