Is it first thing in the morning? Right before you fall asleep? As you’re driving down the road or making meals? Is it in the shower?
Or when you’re on the toilet?
Think about it..you don’t have to say if you actually pray when you’re on the toilet, but I’ll admit, I have. I don’t know what it is, but there have been many instances where the moment I sit, I begin to pray. Not sure if it’s the fact there isn’t much to do in there, or if I feel that’s a ‘quiet place’ or if I think that this is the only moment I’m willing to give to the Lord…whatever it is, I’ve caught myself more times that I’d care to admit.
I had a discussion with someone some time ago about this, where they told me they caught themselves praying while on the toilet and it struck them how disrespectful it was. Here they were praying to Almighty God…while ‘doing their business’. As if there’s no other time in their day to talk to Him but while on the pot.
That’s the moment I admitted to them, that I do the same. To me, its quite shameful. I realize He sees everything, knows everything, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a time to give my prayers to the Lord.
Where’s the reverence?
When and where do you pray? Is it in a hurried rush of words before you pick up your ringing phone? Or after you narrowly escaped hitting a car? In between commercials? Or sitting on the toilet….?
When do you give God your time?
all listed above are moments I’ve prayed. See this not as me calling you out, but me calling myself out for not giving God enough of my time.
*Added
I should say that I pray throughout the day, regardless of where I am and what I’m doing if I feel the need to pray at that very moment. With that said, I personally believe praying while ‘doing my business’ is not one of those places or times to do so.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
When do you pray?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
LinkWithin
10 comments:
I must admit that I too have found myself praying while using the bathroom!!
I used to do my "quite time" at night but found that I often fell asleep half way through and that was no good.....so now I do it first thing in the morning and sometimes I do remember a thought in the shower and kinda continue then.
However, having said that I find myself praying throughout the day. Often I will say to someone "I am praying for you" and in the past would wait till later and then forget so now I do so immediately whether in my office or out on the balcony at work, in the car or cooking. I "chat" to God while driving or waiting between meetings.
Although I have a set time for "main" prayer time I do find myself praying throughout the day.....
I do the bathroom prayer too. We're human right? I don't think it matters what we are doing! It is kinda funny though!
I try to set time aside in the morning to pray but sometimes I'm running late. But you're right, we shouldn't give God our leftover time.
Since I'm a journaler, I tend to write out my prayers/have my "quiet time" at night before bed. But I do quite a bit of praying while driving as well.
I think to pray mostly at the kitchen sink while doing dishes, but I'm thankful that my Mom and Dad taught me that anywhere is a place of prayer.
It tickled me so much when Q walked into our room yesterday and saw his Daddy was sick, and after asking if I gave him a.) medicine and b.) water he said "We need to pray for him!" ;) God doesn't care where you're at. On the pot or not. You know, in the Bible the Pharisees were chided for their pious prayers on the street corners. They prayed where they thought others would see them, and it would be most important. To me that says that God is more interested in the secret places of the heart. Well, in Matthew 6 it says "your Father which sees in secret will reward you openly." I don't think that means we have to go shut ourselves away in a prayer closet ALL the time, but speaks more of the secret places of our heart. The part that is hidden from all but Him.
Another thing, in OT times, in order to pray and it be received you had to take a sacrifice to the priest, so he could mediate your supplication before God. Because of Christ we have instant mediation before the throne of God. And if our mediation is instant, and we don't have to go to a temple and present our request, we are further reminded that there is no wrong place to pray.
Basically, I don't think it's wrong to pray on the toilet. I don't think it's disrespectful, either. When it comes to prayer, God is more concerned with us praying HIS will than when/where we pray it. I think the most disrespect we can do in prayer is when we pray without regard to His will, or treat Him as a 1-800-wish granter instead of God. Sometimes we pray and forget to praise Him IN prayer.
Hmmm, I like your posts that turn into mini Bible studies. ;)
LeAnna basically said everything I wanted to say! Soo....see above! Hahaha. Great post, how important it is to carry everything to God in prayer :)
totally agree with leanna. the bathroom is dirty, but so are our hearts. thanks be to God for Jesus, our mediator!
Like you said in your edit, I pray throughout the day when things are on my mind. But I keep a prayer journal as well so I like to write in that in the evenings just to have some quiet time with God. :)
My prayers vary from day to day. Some days I am more consistent about sending prayers up throughout the day and some days I will realize I haven't said the first prayer the entire day. I seem to do my best praying in the shower :0) I would love to be at a place in my life where prayer was the first thing I did before worry or doubt and in all circumstances whether good or bad.
I seem to pray most often when I'm driving. I love using that time to worship! But I definitely don't think that God would be mad at you for praying on the toilet. Although I DO agree that we shouldn't just give God the "left over" time that we have.
Post a Comment