PRAY WHERE YOU ARE

I am always looking for fresh ways of engaging with God.  With my tendency to drift I need practices that help keep God in focus as the main thing in my life.  Here is a practice that I have come up with over the past year or so.  I do not do it well and fall short of its objectives often, however I keep at it because when I do engage in it I really sense God's hand at work.

This was to be shared in the message SHIFT that I gave on Sunday Dec. 26 as one of two ways to keep God in focus. 

The two key areas where I will need to do the most shifting is in respect to places that I inhabit and the people I interact with.  The first practice is ...

PRAY WHERE YOU ARE:  In its simplest form this practice involves praying  every time I enter a new environment. 

So here is how it might be lived out on an average day: first praying when I get into my car, my next stop would be the Starbucks where I get my morning coffee and praying there, then praying at my son's school when I drop him off, then praying as soon as I get into the office.  Then throughout the day when I run an errand or go to an appointment praying as soon as I get there, then later going to the gym and then back home praying as soon as I enter into all these environments.

Now what I pray will vary.  The main point is to acknowledge God's presence in all of these environments.  When I am faithful in this practice it has an incredibly shaping influence in my experience in these places. Instead of getting through the routine of what these places facilitate,  I find myself seeing things with more redemptive eyes and more intuned to the people around me.

Two key verses that have informed this practice are below.

Genesis 28:16,17
Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ And he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

Matthew 28:20b
… I am with you always, to the end of the age.

I hope this will prod you PRAY WHERE YOU ARE  in 2011.

The second practice will be in a future post.

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Comments

[Rod Kaya]

Chris, thanks for commenting. I remember a time when I was sharing this practice with Butch W. Also in the course of our conversation we begin to vent a little to one another. To which he shared maybe if engaged in praying where you are maybe our conversation would not have gone the way it went. I too need all the help I can get. Yesterday was a good day, where I was able to live out this practice and I did see a difference.

[Cft]

Great word. I am always distracted unable to be in the present with Him!