Where is your place of prayer? My prayer partner Bill Gladden set aside a prayer closet in each home he lived in. He told me once, “If God wakes me up, I get up. When I get up, I pray up.”
Like his grandfather, Jacob purchased a place when he arrived safely in the land. At Sukkoth he built shelters for his animals. But when he arrived outside Shechem, he bought land for 100 pieces of silver. Like Abraham, he established a place of worship, an altar where he called upon the name of the Lord.
Think today about setting aside a place to pray. In my office at work and my office at home I have matching chairs where I sit to pray and read. My music professor at seminary, Tommy Hunt, dedicated a room in his house where he knelt to pray for all of his students. In Hershey Park, I have found an outdoor spot where I meet with God.
Why do we need a place? True, God is everywhere. Also true, God can hear us from anywhere. Finding a place is not so much a statement about God as it is about our own intentionality. We consecrate a time and a place to seek God’s face. Every time we come to that place we pray.
When Elijah battled the prophets of Baal, the altar on Mt. Carmel had fallen into disrepair. He rebuilt it and then consecrated it as a place for God’s people to return to the Lord. Fire fell that day. Isn’t it time we rebuild our altar of prayer? Noise in our homes and offices has drowned out the voice of God calling us to pray. In our readings this week we learned that early in the morning, Jesus went out to a place to pray. Where is our place? Isn’t it time?
