Go Away & Pray
Last week, I found myself sitting on a picnic blanket in the middle of the quad at 6:30 in the morning, watching the sunrise and reading my Bible. Why?
I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep.
I had plenty of time for my devotion. I thought, “Why not get away? Go somewhere different? Get out of my 250-square-foot dorm room?”
Every believer has a different pattern for spending time with God and reading the Bible. I used to be a study-and-pray-at-night girl. Now that I’m in college and don’t have any 8 a.m.’s [*insert halleluiah chorus here*], and I like meeting with God in the morning. I’m still cutting out time for Him, but just at a different place in my daily routine.
Lately God has been teaching me that growing closer to Him is more than a “pause” on my day. We should pause every day to seek Him, but we also need to go away to grow deeper with Him.
Going away means going somewhere by yourself specifically to be with God.
Luke 5:16 says, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (NIV). You can find other examples in Luke 4:42, Mark 1:35 and Matthew 14:23.
Jesus didn’t have to leave His normal environment to pray. He could have prayed before breakfast, on the way to the synagogue or while sailing across the Sea of Galilee. And He probably did. But He made a point to physically remove himself from people, places and things that could distract Him from God.
I wish I could say that I’ve mastered “going away to pray,” but that’s not the case. I am still learning what it means to go away and focus on God, but I can tell you that it’s worth it!
Think about your relationship with your best friend. You probably text each other at different times of the day, and you may set aside time to talk on the phone. However, you also plan moments to go somewhere special and enjoy time away from the busyness of life.
We need time like this with God. This week, I challenge you to pick a day to get away with God. Go to a park or a local coffee shop, and be ready to learn. He will meet you there.