IN A CERTAIN PLACE

Luke 11:1 -- “One day, Jesus was praying in a certain place...”

As I was reading my daily devotional this morning, I was struck by this note from Luke within a larger passage on prayer instruction.  The disciples had noted Jesus’ prayer habits and went to Him to ask to be taught how to pray as He prayed.  As Luke records, they found Jesus praying in “a certain place.”

Jesus had a habit of daily prayer -- of talking with His Father on a regular basis.  Scripture records that Jesus prayed early in the morning and late at night.  I am certain He prayed while sauntering through the landscape and ministering to the people, especially when He felt the prompting to directly touch another’s life through a miraculous act.

But, often overlooked in the discussions of how and when Jesus prayed, is where Jesus prayed.  Luke notes that the disciples found Jesus in “a certain place.”  The text implies that this was a known location -- a place where Jesus commonly retreated to have a quiet moment with His Father.

We all need such a place.  It may be a recliner in the living room, a special closet, a front porch rocking chair, but we all need to identify a certain place for us.  Science has shown that we are creatures of habit -- that we tend to stay in homeostasis by doing the same thing, the same way, every day.  For that reason, we need a certain place for prayer.  Doing so trains our bodies and our spirits to assume a prayerful position every time we go to that place, and by making it a habit to sit in that location every day will cause our minds and our spirits to naturally seek out the Father.

The most recent movie by the Kendrick brothers, “The War Room,” graphically demonstrated the value of having such a certain place in our lives, and the impact it can have on our spiritual life and relationship with God.

I want to encourage you today to find your certain place if you do not already have one, and to commit to one month of prayer and quiet time with God in this place at a set time of the day.  It has been said that habits become ingrained in us after 30-days of repetition.  So, commit to taking the rest of this month and find your certain place and spend the next 30-days in prayer to see what a difference it might make in your spiritual life.