As a Christian the title should be obvious, but I don’t know if it is. Some are recognizing that this period of COVID-19 could be God trying to slow us down, but are we really utilizing this time as God wants? I don’t believe God gave us all this time just to fill it with more distractions. I believe He is calling us to himself, and we mainly engage with God through His Word and prayer.
My family has added a daily family prayer at noon and a daily Bible devotion since quarantine started. It was my wife’s idea to use some of our extra time and spend it with God. We figured it would be a shame to come out of this season and not be closer to God. I’ve started to implement a morning ritual where I get up in the morning and pray, read, and write. It’s not always in that order but prayer always comes first. I’m of the opinion that when you start your day with God, it can only get better from there.
Everyone needs someone to talk to, why not talk to The Lord? He wants to know us and be known by us and prayer is a great medium to do that. Some scriptures mention praying in the early morning and I personally find that to be the best time for myself. There is something about the stillness of morning and speaking to God before the day demands your attention. Before your cellphone and all the notifications fill your day, that’s the best time to enter into prayer.
I’m sure everyone has their preferred prayer posture, mine is getting on my knees. Typically for my morning prayer, I kneel in front of the sofa and rest my elbows on a cushion. For me prayer in any capacity is good but I always feel the best when I kneel. There is something about assuming the same position countless saints before me assumed. I feel connected to a time honored tradition of physically and spiritually humbling myself before an awesome and sovereign King. When I’m in that position, I can drop any pretentious thoughts of being better than I really am. It’s hard to think everything’s alright when you are on your knees, you are there for a reason. I find that when I tell God how I truly feel in this position, when I rise, even if I didn’t hear The Lord, I physically feel better. Every time I experience this, I question why I don’t pray like this more often.
I’m not saying that you should pray like this, I’m only telling you what works for me. Days where I start off like that typically tend to be good or great days. I challenge you, when possible, to carve out time to pray to God. This year gives no shortage of subjects to pray for, perhaps you could lean into some of those. I don’t believe prayer gets you immediate answers to all your problems. Instead, it connects you to the one who can help you solve them. Prayer, like all the things of God, still has its place in our society. Prayer has its uses in the Bible, and could be useful in your life if you allowed it to be.
