Finding time to get away and pray and take time alone with God can be particularly difficult when we are out of our normal element. This can be especially so when visiting family members over a few days or weeks like during a break from college.
Because you haven’t seen your family in a while, they will likely want to spend some good quality time with you, and you with them. This can be one of the greatest ways that you can honor them. They want to know what is going on in your life, what you have been learning, and to strengthen their relationship with you.
However, our needs transcend the need for human relationships. We need communion with God. Time alone for reflection, meditation on the word, and prayer are vital to be healthy within your own soul and life-giving in your other relationships.
Even Jesus modeled this practice. Mark 1:35 says “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed”
In the midst of all the miracles that he was doing, intra-national travel, and discipling 12 men that seemed to travel with him almost everywhere, Jesus had many relational demands upon him. But he knew that there was still his relationship with the Father that he could not neglect. For him this meant getting up extremely early, while everyone else was likely still asleep.
What do you need to do in order to have that time alone for prayer? You may consider the following ideas to find time alone:
- Get up earlier (while others are still asleep)
- Stay up later (after others are going to sleep)
- Stay in your room in the morning until you have taken some time
- Go for a walk alone – or even take the family dog with you – so you can be serving at the same time.
- Drive somewhere quiet and pray/read in your car for 20 min. or so
As you pursue time alone in communion with God, try to avoid appearing anti-social. Our heart should be to pursue God and then out of that bless others. Avoid unnecessarily offending family members and roommates in the process. Though, it is not always possible for others to fully understand your need for God, especially if they do not know him, we don’t want to create stumbling blocks to them finding Him, in our pursuit of Him.
[*This is my third post in a series of posts called “Spring Break Challenge” geared at challenging Christian college students to live intentionally and to make a difference during their break]