Outdoors provides such a wealth of possibilities for experiential prayer. Very little, if any, preparation is required, it’s as accessible in as much as how close to the outdoors you can get and it’s free.
I love worshipping outdoors. In the gospels we find Jesus outdoors on mountains, next to lakes, in deserts and gardens. He heals with mud, talks of lilies and fig trees, pigs and fish.
I totally understand the practicalities of shelter being a significant benefit to worshipping indoors, but sometimes we box God into the buildings we call churches. The demands of the building dictate how and when we worship.
Getting outside invites us to meet with the God of creation at any time of the day or night, alone or with others.
Today’s prayer ideas invite us to think about our outdoor surroundings as a place of worship.
Then he went up on a mountain where he could be alone and pray. Later in the evening, he was still there.
Matthew 14:23 (CEV)
I realise not everyone has easy access to a garden, beach, lake, river, mountain, hill, forest or field. For experiential prayer we can make use of the vastness of these places, but we can also bring things to a much smaller focus. A leaf, a drop of rain, a weed pushing it’s way up through the crack in the pavement - these can all be starters for prayer. Even in large cities, nature is around us and there are prayer possibilities.
There are some things we can gather from outdoors that can become part of our prayer kit and other bits of equipment that might be good to have at the ready for when we do want to take advantage of the weather or the location and take our praying outdoors.
On the journey
Caroline
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