The mother of John and Charles Wesley, Susanna, had 19 children. At times, she was alone in rearing them. When it came time for her personal prayer, she created her own space by throwing her apron up over her head. It served as a sign for her children to quieted down and leave her in peace during that time.
While we don’t agree with her doctrinal understanding of Scripture, we must admire her creativity in making time for God.
Many believe our days are more crowded with tasks than in previous generations, providing less disposable time. It’s probably not true. Our age has more time off, more holidays, more vacation time, than any other. Rather, we have chosen to waste our free time in frivolous pursuits.
We have the means to create our own devotional space, if we really want it. If a woman who had to choose a different day of the week to have individual conversations with her children was able to innovate with an apron, we also have at our command a thousand ways to find time for God.
- We can listen to the Bible on audio and pray while driving in the car.
- We can share verses of Scripture at the dinner table.
- We can write a verse down on a card and look at it throughout the day to memorize it.
- We can post a kind word, a prayer, a verse on social media when we check our accounts.
- We can take our prayers as seriously as we do our jobs by keeping a journal.
The Bible is now ubiquitous, and prayers can be said at almost any time of the day. Nobody can keep us from meditating on Scripture, no one can prevent us from speaking to God in our hearts.
The first Psalm tells us how the just man conducts his life with God.
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
(Psalm 1:1-2, NASB).
Truth be told, we’re doing too much walking, standing, and sitting in the wrong places rather than stopping and bowing before the Lord God.